By leveraging Ginkgo's ultra high throughput
encapsulated screening capabilities, AgBiome aims to unlock even
higher performance of its microbial strain pipeline
RESEARCH
TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. and BOSTON, June 6, 2023
/PRNewswire/ -- AgBiome®, Inc., a leader in global
microbial innovation, and Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA), which is
building the leading platform for cell programming and biosecurity,
today announced a partnership to optimize the performance of
products in AgBiome's pipeline of agricultural biologicals.
Organizations developing next generation agricultural inputs can
access Ginkgo's platform to accelerate discovery and deployment of
new products. By leveraging Ginkgo's ultra high throughput
encapsulated screening capabilities, AgBiome aims to provide
growers with new and improved live microbial strain products.
The biological crop protection market has significantly grown in
recent years as growers have increasingly sought effective and
sustainable alternatives to synthetic pest control products. By
leveraging Ginkgo's suite of advanced biology tools, AgBiome aims
to enhance the breadth and efficacy of novel biological
products.
"We believe we can identify improved variants at massive scale,
which can help deliver more potent agricultural biologicals and
bring the next generation of products to market," said Magalie
Guilhabert, Head of Ag Biologicals, Ginkgo Bioworks. "We are
thrilled to work with an industry leader like AgBiome as we seek to
optimize live microbial strain products in their pipeline and
provide even better solutions to growers around the world."
"AgBiome is committed to creating the most effective crop
protection products, and we are always looking for new technologies
to enable better performance," said Scott
Uknes, Co-founder and Co-CEO of AgBiome. "We are excited to
utilize Ginkgo's capabilities in ultra high throughput assay
development to evolve the next generation of biologicals as we
continue to provide growers with improved product efficacy."
AgBiome's crop protection products, discovered using its
proprietary Genesis™ platform, are based on natural microbial
strains that have undergone extensive testing and evaluation to
ensure consistent performance. Ginkgo's ultra high throughput
encapsulated screening technology makes it possible to search
through up to 1 million strain variants in a single run and select
the best performing candidates for further development. Built on
nanoliter encapsulation technology, Ginkgo's screening capabilities
provide nanoscale growth and assay compartments and make it
possible to greatly reduce the screening time for large
libraries.
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 Twitter (@Ginkgo and @ConcentricByGBW), Instagram
(@GinkgoBioworks and @ConcentricByGinkgo), or LinkedIn.
About AgBiome
At AgBiome, we partner with the microbial world for human
benefit. We are recognized as a Certified B Corp for
upholding high environmental, social and governance standards. Our
proprietary GENESIS™ discovery platform efficiently captures
diverse, unique microbes for multiple industries, including
agriculture, human health, and industrial products and processes.
For agriculture, we combine our novel microbial collection and data
science with validated industry-best assays for insect, disease,
herbicide, and nematode control. Through our commercial
subsidiaries, AgBiome develops and sells proprietary crop
protection solutions. The first of these,
Howler®fungicide, launched in 2019, is a revolutionary
fungicide for disease control in a broad variety of crops, followed
by Theia® fungicide, which launched in late 2022.
For more information, visit http://agbiome.com
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
partnership 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 unpredictability of the duration
of the COVID-19 pandemic and the demand for COVID-19 testing and
the commercial viability of our COVID-19 testing business, (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 May 10, 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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SOURCE Ginkgo Bioworks