- 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:
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GINKGO BIOWORKS MEDIA CONTACT:
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