Cambrium and Ginkgo Bioworks Complete Successful Collaboration on Data-Driven Cell Factory Engineering

BERLIN and BOSTON, April 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Cambrium, a leading German start-up focused on the application of generative AI to protein design and synthesis, and Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA, "Ginkgo"), which is building the leading platform for cell programming and biosecurity, today announced the successful completion of their collaboration. Through the partnership, Cambrium and Ginkgo combined their capabilities to enable the rapid and cost-effective design of high performing, industrially relevant microbes for protein production.

Almost 2 years ago, Cambrium and FGen, a subsidiary of Ginkgo now known as Ginkgo's Encapsulation and Screening team, announced a partnership to push the boundaries of data-driven metabolic engineering. Combining FGen's expertise in microbial strain development and ultra high-throughput screening (uHTS) techniques with Cambrium's Cloud Protein AI platform, the collaboration screened a vast quantity of cells to optimize their protein production. 

The collaboration allowed scientists to map experimental data to in silico models, generating strain optimization insights and enabling faster convergence towards high performance protein production. It also enabled the isolation of novel cell lines which produced enhanced levels of high-value proteins. Through the collaboration, the teams were able to identify non-obvious engineering targets to significantly improve strain performance. In particular, the results show that, even with limited genome edits, it is possible to achieve significant increases across critical performance metrics in iterative fermentation cycles. With these advances, the partnership developed more efficient and cost-effective biomanufacturing methods for both companies and their partners.

"Partnering with FGen, and then Ginkgo, was a natural move to generate an immense amount of data to feed our AI algorithms," said Dr. Charlie Cotton, Chief Science Officer of Cambrium. "By leveraging our respective strengths, we gained extremely valuable insights for both strain engineering and product optimization."

"Using our ultra high-throughput screening (uHTS) capabilities and nanoliter-reactor technology, we were able to generate a vast quantity of data linked to specific phenotypes to feed the machine learning algorithms," said Dr. Rocio Aguilar Suarez, Research Scientist at Ginkgo Bioworks. "By partnering with Cambrium, we were able to design a novel concept of strain engineering."

The project was co-funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation and the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) in the framework of the Eurostars Project ArtIMiS (E!114792).

About Cambrium

Cambrium GmbH is a company specialized in generative AI-aided design of proteins and cell factories to create next-generation biomaterials in cosmetics, fashion and plastics. Cambrium's proprietary toolkit harnesses both nature's building blocks and the power of computer design to supercharge the design cycle of new biomaterials. For more information, visit cambrium.bio, read our blog, or find us on LinkedIn.

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.

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 annual report on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on March 13, 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

CAMBRIUM CONTACT
Natassja dos Anjos 
natassja.dosanjos@cambrium.bio

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SOURCE Cambrium