Ginkgo Bioworks Acquires AgBiome’s Platform Assets
Ginkgo Bioworks, which is building the leading platform for cell programming and biosecurity, announced the acquisition of AgBiome’s platform assets, including over 115,000 fully sequenced and isolated strains, over 500 million unique gene sequences, and relevant functional data and metadata, as well as AgBiome’s development pipeline. These assets will be integrated into Ginkgo Ag Biologicals Services, established with the acquisition of a Bayer agricultural biologicals R&D facility in 2022, and will expand Ginkgo’s proprietary unified metagenomics database. Combined, this creates one of the deepest and most advanced ag biological discovery and development platforms as well as a rich resource for the development of AI models for biological R&D.
Since its founding in 2012, AgBiome has worked to generate an extensive collection of biological products and technologies — from agricultural products, to bioactive ingredients, to gene editing tools — through its Genesis Discovery Platform. AgBiome has successfully commercialized multiple biological products, including the Howler and Theia product lines, which are not included in the acquisition. AgBiome has developed a massive microbial strain library from over 8,000 geographically diverse environmental samples. These isolates have been fully sequenced, producing a rich library with over 500 million unique gene sequences. Also included in the acquisition is a robust product concept pipeline including a dozen product candidates with greenhouse or field validation — these validated assets create a rich foundation for future partnered programs, as well as a diverse resource of metagenomic data for genomic mining and AI model training.
Michael Miille, Ginkgo Fellow: “We are so excited to bring AgBiome’s incredible strain and metagenomic collection into Ginkgo. This is a world class asset that will significantly expand our capabilities and can directly benefit Ginkgo’s customers in the ag biologicals space. In addition to the platform assets and capabilities, the product concepts pipeline that has been validated by AgBiome to date provides an exciting opportunity to give customers a head-start in their product development efforts.”
Laura Potter, AgBiome CSO: “These assets represent a massive, ground-breaking investment into exploring and characterizing microbial diversity for human benefit, and we can’t think of a better home for them than the Ginkgo platform.”
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