FreeGenes was the BioBricks Foundation's project to synthesise DNA sequences the research community asked for and give them away: requested sequences were checked for biosecurity, batched for synthesis with Twist Bioscience, cloned and sequence-verified, and distributed without charge under the OpenMTA, through an order store run by the Endy Lab at Stanford University and through Addgene.
What FreeGenes offered
Twist Bioscience announced that the Foundation would buy 10,000 genes from it, with the library subject to the Open Material Transfer Agreement (Twist Bioscience), and the paper that launched the OpenMTA cites FreeGenes as its first use: sequences requested by the community are synthesised and made available without cost (Kahl and others, 2018). The project's own page explained that sequences were checked for biosecurity and held until there were enough for a batch order from Twist (FreeGenes page, archived). Its parts, such as the pOpen_v3 vector credited to Keoni Gandall, are documented on the project's GitHub pages.
The iGEM distribution
In 2022 iGEM announced that its DNA distribution, the kit of parts sent to every team, would be manufactured and distributed by the FreeGenes Project with all physical materials under the OpenMTA (iGEM). For the 2025 and 2026 kits iGEM partnered with the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, and thanks FreeGenes, the Open Bioeconomy Lab and Asimov for the work behind the kit (iGEM distribution kit).
Status: on hiatus
The Stanford order store has carried the same notice since at least January 2023, still there in May 2025: the project is going on hiatus for restaffing and will not accept new orders (the store, archived). We found no formal closure statement, and the project's former web addresses no longer belong to it, so treat any site using the FreeGenes name with care and get the parts through the channels below.
Where to get open DNA parts today
Addgene lists 78 plasmids deposited by the FreeGenes Project, offered under OpenMTA terms to academic and industry users alike (Addgene). Reclone keeps its open enzyme genes, 81 in the Open Enzyme Collection, in its Open DNA Collections repository (Reclone), and the new iGEM Registry is in beta with the classic parts.igem.org kept read-only (iGEM Registry). For a sequence nobody shares, commercial synthesis is priced by the base pair; the gene synthesis price comparison on this site lists what vendors publish.
Questions people ask about freegenes
Is FreeGenes still running?
Its order store has said since at least January 2023 that the project is on hiatus for restaffing and not accepting new orders; we found no formal closure statement.
Where can I get FreeGenes plasmids?
Addgene lists 78 plasmids deposited by the FreeGenes Project, under OpenMTA terms for academic and industry users.
What terms were FreeGenes parts shared under?
The OpenMTA, the open material transfer agreement, which allows redistribution and commercial use with attribution; the store used its unilateral form.
What does it cost to synthesise a gene instead?
Commercial gene synthesis is priced per base pair, and vendors publish their rates; the gene synthesis price comparison on this site lists them, dated.
Sources
- Twist Bioscience: partnership with the BioBricks Foundation (retrieved 2026-10-21)
- Kahl and others, Nature Biotechnology, 2018 (retrieved 2026-10-21)
- The FreeGenes Project page (archived February 2024) (retrieved 2026-10-21)
- FreeGenes store at Stanford (archived May 2025) (retrieved 2026-10-21)
- FreeGenes parts: pOpen_v3 (retrieved 2026-10-21)
- iGEM: the 2022 DNA distribution (retrieved 2026-10-21)
- iGEM: distribution kit (retrieved 2026-10-21)
- Addgene: FreeGenes plasmids (retrieved 2026-10-21)
- Reclone: reagents (retrieved 2026-10-21)