- Members of Congress visited Ginkgo's Boston Seaport
headquarters to discuss strategies for bolstering U.S. ability to
compete in AI applications for biotechnology, as well as unlocking
innovations in pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and across
industries
- Ginkgo's Foundry generates essential data assets and tools to
allow companies to more reliably develop biotech
products
- Members also previewed Ginkgo's new Biofab1 facility, under
construction in the Seaport, which is expected to significantly
increase Ginkgo's R&D-for-service capacities when fully
operational
- Ginkgo's facilities in Boston
encompass 500,000+ sq. ft. of existing and planned capacity.
Similar to the role played by chip fabs and cloud data centers in
enabling the cybereconomy and advances in artificial intelligence,
these facilities can serve as a critical enabler of a vibrant and
competitive bioeconomy
BOSTON, Feb. 13,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA),
which is building the leading platform for cell programming and
biosecurity, hosted members of Congress focused on strengthening
the U.S. bioeconomy in service of national and economic security
yesterday. Ginkgo provided a tour of its expansive facility and
discussed its unique position as a provider of services that
facilitate applications of biotechnology in companies of all sizes
across the economy.
Familiar with the risks associated with dependencies on
international chip fabrication plants, visitors from the United
States House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between
the United States and the Chinese
Communist Party toured Ginkgo's 300,000+ sq. ft. facility in
action, previewed Ginkgo's new under-construction 250,000+ sq. ft.
facility, Biofab1, and discussed implications for economic
competition in the multi-trillion dollar bioeconomy.
Similar to how chip manufacturers and cloud computing companies
have provided the economies of scale and specialization required to
enable the digital economy, Ginkgo's Foundry provides companies
with the flexibility and scale required to more readily develop and
commercialize bio-based products. Specifically, Ginkgo leverages
advanced automation and massive biological datasets to drive down
R&D costs, while also aiming to improve the speed of
development and probability of success of customer programs. Today,
Ginkgo provides R&D services for partners including Pfizer,
Merck, and Novo Nordisk in biopharma; Bayer, Syngenta, and
Corteva in agriculture; Sumitomo and Solvay in specialty
chemicals as well as many others in the food, materials, and
personal care sectors.
The Foundry and Biofab1 have taken on additional national
security relevance in light of new generative AI capabilities.
Generative AI stands to accelerate biotechnology R&D, offering
pathways to breakthroughs in biopharma and across the economy. In
that context, biological data is of renewed and particular
importance. Biofab1 is expected to begin operations early next year
and aims to significantly increase Ginkgo's capacity to generate
biological data.
Congressman Mike Gallagher
(R-WI), Chairman of the United States House Select Committee on the
Strategic Competition between the United
States and the Chinese Communist Party: "Boston is one of the epicenters for biotech
innovation in America. Given that this is a critical technology
with national security, economic, and ethical implications, we came
here to talk to the experts and figure out the right strategy, so
that we, and not the Chinese Communist Party, can dominate this
technology and set ethical rules of the road."
Jason Kelly, CEO and
co-founder of Ginkgo Bioworks: "We built the Foundry - and
are building Biofab1 - to create more opportunities for our
partners to innovate in health, agriculture, food, and across
industries. Essentially, our facilities are factories that produce
the biological data that powers the AI-enabled bioeconomy, and it
was an honor to share them with members of the
Committee."
Last summer, Ginkgo announced a strategic partnership with
Google Cloud aimed at leveraging Ginkgo's Foundry and large
biological data assets to develop new, state-of-the-art LLMs. These
models are meant to help Ginkgo's customers accelerate innovation
and discovery in fields as diverse as drug discovery, agriculture,
industrial manufacturing, and biosecurity.
Ginkgo leadership shared with the visiting Committee its view
that, like in other AI applications, leadership in the bioeconomy
will necessitate leading in the development of these AI
models.
Jason Kelly will testify during
the Committee's hearing, entitled "Growing Stakes: The Bioeconomy
and American National Security," which was scheduled to take place
later today, but has been postponed due to inclement weather.
About Ginkgo Bioworks
Ginkgo Bioworks is the leading horizontal platform for cell
programming, providing flexible, end-to-end services that solve
challenges for organizations across diverse markets, from food and
agriculture to pharmaceuticals to industrial and specialty
chemicals. Ginkgo's biosecurity and public health unit, Concentric
by Ginkgo, is building global infrastructure for biosecurity to
empower governments, communities, and public health leaders to
prevent, detect and respond to a wide variety of biological
threats. For more information, visit ginkgobioworks.com
and concentricbyginkgo.com, read our blog, or follow us
on social media channels such as X (formerly known as Twitter)
(@Ginkgo and @ConcentricByGBW), Instagram (@GinkgoBioworks and
@ConcentricByGinkgo), Threads (@GinkgoBioworks)
or LinkedIn.
Forward-Looking Statements of Ginkgo Bioworks
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements
within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including
statements regarding the capabilities and potential success of the
Foundry, Biofab1, and Ginkgo's cell programming platform. These
forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words
"believe," "can," "project," "potential," "expect," "anticipate,"
"estimate," "intend," "strategy," "future," "opportunity," "plan,"
"may," "should," "will," "would," "will be," "will continue," "will
likely result," and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements
are predictions, projections and other statements about future
events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and,
as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors
could cause actual future events to differ materially from the
forward-looking statements in this press release, including but not
limited to: (i) volatility in the price of Ginkgo's securities due
to a variety of factors, including changes in the competitive and
highly regulated industries in which Ginkgo operates and plans to
operate, variations in performance across competitors, and changes
in laws and regulations affecting Ginkgo's business, (ii) the
ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other
expectations, and to identify and realize additional business
opportunities, (iii) the risk of downturns in demand for products
using synthetic biology, (iv) the uncertainty regarding the demand
for passive monitoring programs and biosecurity services, (v)
changes to the biosecurity industry, including due to advancements
in technology, emerging competition and evolution in industry
demands, standards and regulations, (vi) our ability to realize the
expected benefits of merger and acquisition transactions, (vii) the
outcome of any legal proceedings against Ginkgo, including as a
result of recent acquisitions, (viii) our ability to realize the
expected benefits from and the success of our Foundry platform
programs, (ix) our ability to successfully develop engineered
cells, bioprocesses, data packages or other deliverables, and (x)
the product development or commercialization success of our
customers. The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. You
should carefully consider the foregoing factors and the other risks
and uncertainties described in the "Risk Factors" section of
Ginkgo's quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on November 8, 2023 and other documents filed by
Ginkgo from time to time with the SEC. These filings identify and
address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause
actual events and results to differ materially from those contained
in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak
only as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put
undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and Ginkgo assumes no
obligation and does not intend to update or revise these
forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,
future events, or otherwise. Ginkgo does not give any assurance
that it will achieve its expectations.
GINKGO BIOWORKS INVESTOR
CONTACT:
investors@ginkgobioworks.com
GINKGO BIOWORKS MEDIA
CONTACT:
press@ginkgobioworks.com
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