BOSTON, October 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE:DNA), the leading horizontal cell programming platform, today announced the complementary acquisition of Altar, a French biotechnology company that has developed a proprietary platform for adaptive evolution. A fleet of Altar’s Adaptive Laboratory Evolution (ALE) automated instruments will be integrated into Ginkgo’s Foundry to serve customers in food and beverage, biofuels, biomaterials, cosmetics, healthcare animal and human health, among others. Ginkgo has worked successfully with Altar on client programs and is delighted to welcome them to the team.
Despite immense advances in rational genome editing and high-throughput testing of engineered strains over the past decade, it often remains difficult to create microorganisms that meet target specifications under economically relevant conditions. industrial due to the complexity and unknowns of the underlying genetics. For the development of certain phenotypes, such as those based on enhanced growth under normally adverse conditions, ALE can be a powerful approach to address this challenge. By incorporating Altar’s ALE platform with the engineering capabilities of existing Ginkgo strains, Ginkgo expects to be able to routinely engineer target phenotypes that can be selected based on their enhanced growth properties in defined process conditions, such as in the presence of otherwise inhibiting concentrations of a target end product or excessively high temperatures. Selected strains from these ALE-based selections will then be characterized and validated against Ginkgo’s existing suite of testing workflows.
“As the range of programs we work on continues to expand, it is imperative that we have the best tools for rational design as well as the ability to leverage the inherent diversity and creativity that emerges from evolving processes. “, said Nikos Reppa, Senior Director, Foundry Technology at Ginkgo Bioworks. “We are delighted to welcome the Altar team to Ginkgo and look forward to integrating Altar technology into Ginkgo’s suite of offerings to better serve existing and future customers.”
“We founded Altar to increase feasibility and reduce time to market for bio-manufactured products,” said Simon Trancart, CEO of Altar. “We’ve been working with Ginkgo for a few years now, and we’re excited to join the Ginkgo Platform as we strive to accomplish our mission on an even larger scale by collectively using biology to drive innovation across all sectors.” »
About the altar
Altar specializes in the development of microorganisms for industrial applications. Altar’s technology, developed in collaboration with the Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), automates the adaptive evolution of the laboratory and offers a unique ability to adapt microorganisms to the conditions required by manufacturers. for their competitive use on a commercial scale. Altar has benefited from the support of the European Commission through the EIC Accelerator Pilot funding programme. For more information, visit https://www.altar.bio/.
About Ginkgo Bioworks
Ginkgo is building a platform to allow customers to program cells as easily as we can program computers. The Company’s platform enables biotechnology applications in various markets, from food and agriculture to industrial chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Ginkgo has also actively supported a number of COVID-19 response efforts, including K-12 pooled testing, vaccine manufacturing optimization, and therapy discovery. For more information, visit www.ginkgobioworks.com.
Ginkgo Bioworks Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws, including statements regarding the potential success of Ginkgo’s acquisition and cellular programming platform. These forward-looking statements are generally identified by the words “believe”, “could”, “project”, “potential”, “expect”, “anticipate”, “estimate”, “intend”, “strategy “future,” “opportunity,” “plan,” “may,” “should,” “will,” “would,” “will,” “continue,” “will likely result,” and similar expressions. are predictions, projections and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, therefore, are subject to risks and uncertainties Many factors could cause future events to actual results differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained in this press release, including, but not limited to: (i) the effect of Ginkgo’s business combination with Soaring Eagle Acquisition Corp. (“Soaring Eagle”) on the business relationships, performance and business generally, (ii) the risks that the business combination will disrupt Ginkgo’s current plans and potential difficulties in retaining Ginkgo’s employees, (iii) the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be brought against Ginkgo related to its business combination with Soaring Eagle, (iv) volatility in the price of Ginkgo’s securities now that it is a public company due to various factors, including changes in competitive and highly regulated industries in which Ginkgo operates and plans to operate, variations in performance across competitors, changes in laws and regulations affecting Ginkgo’s business and changes in the combined capital structure, (v) the ability to implement plans to business, forecasts and other expectations after the completion of the business combination, and to identify and realize additional opportunities, (vi) downside risk demand for products using synthetic biology, (vii) 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, (viii ) changes in the biosecurity industry, including due to advances in technology, emerging competition and changing demands, standards and regulations, and (ix) our ability to close and realize the expected benefits of ongoing merger and acquisition transactions. 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 United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). ) the August 15, 2022 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 place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and Ginkgo undertakes no obligation and does not intend to update or revise such forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Ginkgo gives no assurance that it will meet its expectations.
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SOURCE Ginkgo Bioworks
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