Ginkgo Bioworks Launches Ginkgo Enzyme Services, Enabling Applications across Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics, Food and Agriculture, and Beyond

Enzyme Intelligence Virtual Event on December 15, 2022 gives overview of Ginkgo's approach to machine learning-guided enzyme engineering

BOSTON, Dec. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA), which is building the leading platform for cell programming and biosecurity, today announced the launch of Ginkgo Enzyme Services. Ginkgo Enzyme Services is powered by ultra high throughput screening and machine learning-guided protein design, as well as optimized proprietary bacterial and fungal host strains. Ginkgo Enzyme Services solves challenges for R&D teams developing enzymes, from discovery of novel enzyme activity through optimization of enzyme function and large scale manufacturing. A virtual event on Dec. 15 will give an overview of Ginkgo's Enzyme Intelligence approach to machine learning-guided enzyme engineering, a core element of this offering.

Enzymes are valuable biocatalysts used across a wide range of industries including in the production of medicines, food, materials, and beyond. Ginkgo's end-to-end Enzyme Services support R&D leaders looking to identify new enzyme activity to replace existing chemical synthesis steps, improve enzyme specificity, activity, and stability in industrially relevant conditions, and optimize the manufacturing of enzymes for reduced cost of goods and environmental impact.

Ginkgo has supported enzyme R&D programs across a wide range of industries, including biopharma manufacturing and discovery. Notable enzyme services projects include breakthrough work with Aldevron to improve the manufacturing efficiency of vaccinia capping enzyme, a critical reagent used in the production of mRNA vaccines, and a recently announced partnership with Merck to develop Biocatalysts for active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing.

Ginkgo's suite of services covers the full end-to-end process for enzyme R&D, providing synergies between enzyme sequence, host strain, and manufacturing processes that can enable commercial success. Ginkgo Enzyme Services includes:

Novel Enzyme Discovery

• Discover novel enzyme activity and identify starting points for further protein engineering by drawing from Ginkgo's incredibly broad database of proprietary and public genomic sequences
• Mine genome databases using Ginkgo's in-house computational tools to identify thousands of potential hits
• Leverage metagenomic screens to design around existing IP that would otherwise block your development
• Screen candidates using advanced ultra high throughput screening methods to identify unique enzymes with the desired activity

Enzyme Function & Stability Optimization

• Use a broad and constantly expanding toolkit of evolutionary, computational, and rational protein engineering approaches to iteratively improve catalytic activity, enzyme stability, specificity, and expression
• Ultra high throughput assay data empowers supervised machine learning to dramatically improve enzyme function

Access to Optimized Host Strains for Robust Expression

• Express enzymes in Ginkgo's proprietary bacterial and fungal hosts optimized for protein production, including next-generation methanol-free Pichia pastoris and low viscosity Aspergillus niger
• Leverage Ginkgo's deep strain engineering expertise to optimize enzyme expression in Ginkgo's high expression host strains, tailored to support optimal expression of the enzyme to reduce production costs

Optimized Fermentation Process Development

• Automated design of experiments at lab scale using Ginkgo's fleet of hundreds of Ambr® 250 bioreactors to quickly develop fermentation processes, with a proven record of transferring to commercial scale

Manufacturing Scale-Up, Process Development & Tech Transfer

• Perform pilot scale fermentation in one of Ginkgo's facilities with nameplate capacities up to 3,000L
• Optimize downstream processing and purification methods
• Tech transfer to other manufacturing partners, including GMP production

"Most R&D teams working on developing enzymes expect to need to stitch together a bunch of different services and tools, both in-house and external to make their enzymes work," said Jake Janey, PhD, a pioneer in the field of biocatalysis. "The ability for Ginkgo to guide the process all the way, providing many intermediate touchpoints with data and prototypes for development and decision making, is a great value-add."

"At Ginkgo, we are constantly working to improve our platform to provide best-in-class services to enable our customers to meet their R&D challenges head on. As a horizontal platform, we have the flexibility, breadth, and scale to serve customers across biocatalysis, diagnostics, and beyond with the full spectrum of tools they need to discover, develop, and deploy enzymes for their processes and products," said Behzad Mahdavi, SVP of Biopharma Manufacturing & Life Sciences Tools. "With world class expression hosts, automation, computational design, and fermentation capabilities, we are excited to partner with companies across all industries to bring their enzyme-dependent products from conception to market more swiftly and reliably than ever before."

Join us for Enzyme Intelligence, a virtual event featuring Ginkgo's head of protein engineering, Emily Wrenbeck, on December 15, 2022. Sign up here.

Learn more about Ginkgo Enzyme Services at our webpage, or write to us at [email protected].

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.

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  enzyme services 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, and (vi) our ability to realize the expected benefits of 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 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on November 14, 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 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.

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SOURCE Ginkgo Bioworks