"Ginkgo's unique approach to process development and optimization brought an efficiency for developing a custom fermentation process that we didn't see with other toll producers. This is work that we would typically do in-house, but we are always looking for ways to be more operationally efficient. We saw what Ginkgo's team offered and enlisted them to do what they are experts at – simplifying processes with challenging microbes. "
Ginkgo Parnters with Carnegie-Mellon University
Combining recent advancements in synthetic biology with cutting-edge detection technology, the team expects to develop both a highly innovative orally administered pill containing specially engineered, tumor-targeting sensors and a user-friendly cancer screening device designed for at-home testing. As part of this team, Ginkgo plans to apply its cell and enzyme engineering expertise to support development of these new diagnostic tools.
Ginkgo Bioworks partners on Deep Origin-led team to develop new tools for predicting drug safety
The collaboration, Pharmacological Research and Evaluation through Digital Integration and Clinical Trial Simulation (PREDICTS), aims to develop a revolutionary computational platform for drug safety.
As part of this team, Ginkgo will be leveraging its 'Datapoints' platform for perturbation response profiling to generate high-quality, high-throughput, structured data sets to support AI model training, including small molecule drug and genetic perturbations spanning multiple cell and tissue types. Readouts will include cell type-specific toxicity endpoints, DRUG-seq transcriptomics, and cell painting.
Ginkgo Bioworks Selected by PNNL to Deliver a Modular, High‑Throughput Phenotyping Platform for DOE's M2PC
Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA) today announced it has been awarded by the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) a four-year, up to $47M contract to co-design, build, and integrate a High‑Throughput Automated Phenotyping Platform (HTP‑APP) in support of the Microbial Molecular Phenotyping Capability (M2PC). The platform, selected through a competitive procurement process, is intended to enable the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research program to generate rich, reproducible microbial and microbiome data that ensure the U.S. remains at the forefront of the bioeconomy, safeguarding economic, societal, and national security benefits while maintaining global leadership in biotechnology innovation. Drawing on Ginkgo Automation's dynamic Catalyst scheduling software and modular Reconfigurable Automation Carts (RACs), the HTP‑APP is designed to automate end‑to‑end workflows—from media and cultivation to sample preparation and multimodal analytics—while supporting BSL‑2 operations, remote planning and execution, and laboratory integration. This modular approach is expected to help PNNL adapt the platform as scientific needs evolve, add new methods or instrumentation, and maintain high uptime in a user‑facility environment.
Ginkgo Bioworks Awarded Project Agreement through BARDA's BioMaP-Consortium
BOSTON, Nov. 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA) announced today that it has been awarded a contract through the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority's (BARDA) Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Preparedness Consortium (BioMaP-Consortium) to develop innovations that strengthen and reduce the costs of domestic biomanufacturing of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to protect against and treat infection by filoviruses such as Ebola (EBOV) and Sudan Viruses (SUDV). Ginkgo will lead a team composed of Advanced BioScience Laboratories (ABL), Inc., Isolere Bio by Donaldson, NeuImmune, Inc., and ProteoNic BV to develop and integrate innovative technologies that will span the entire process for producing mAb drugs.
To sum up these projects and figure out what Ginkgo does, let's look at the italicized highlights of Ginkgos roles?
Agricen: Ginkgo specialized in process development and optimization of a custom fermentation process.
Carnegie-Mellon: Ginkgo specializes in cell and enzyme engineering.
Deep Origen: Ginkgo specializes in generating data sets to support AI model training.
PNNL: Ginkgo specializes in software that automates work flow in a manufacturing setting.
BARDA: Ginkgo specializes in Antibody production.
I worked for a company that had similar needs for help in manufacturing the antibody they were selling. The company began with two groups, Fermentation and Protein Sciences, their official designation. What they really needed was Upstream and Downstream production teams. The leadership simply did not know that such terms existed and were what they needed. Eventually Upstream and Downstream groups were hired and... they failed. The company had no choice but to pay the maximum required to get the work done properly by hiring one of the many manufacturing companies available in the biotechnology space.
Long before Ginkgo came into existence, manufacturing companies had been working and advancing the science and technology of biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Ginkgo is one of the least experienced options in this space.
Optimizing cell and enzyme engineering? Generating data sets for AI? Workflow software?
Perhaps Ginkgo has overextended it's "expertise" as a result of a CEO and board lacking in the proper background in industry. The leadership of Ginkgo suffers from what many in biotech cargo cults suffer. They moved straight from the University to industry, not learning what is already known from people who have learned from doing the work. Ginkgo specializes in stringing together a set of words that fool the cargo cult tribesmen into thinking work will be done to bring the big metal birds from the sky. They are competing in a field full of companies who have, for decades, been doing what they claim to do.
It reminds one of the downfall of Theranos. Theranos claimed to have tests for 272 (?) tests done by your local hospital. Once they were up and running Theranos ended up using the technology of many of their competitors claiming the results were generated by their little toaster machine and the microblood draw device. The real experts were out there, asking tough question of Elizabeth Holmes at the conferences. These experts worked on the same problems. They had a very hard time solving problems that Theranos claimed to have solved, with no publications.
In essence Theranos and Ginkgo are the industries version of the lab tech postdoc who becomes known as the Golden Child. The one guy in the lab who gets the results the PI wants, every time. He or she gets the big projects because the PI wants particular results, not the kind that come from honest work presented in an honest way.
And so it behooves me to tell you what is missing...
Ginkgo has announced more partnerships than anyone can remember. What have the conclusions been? How many times have they accomplished the goal? How many press releases are about collaborations beginning rather than successful endings? If you were to ask Jason Kelly what has been Ginkgos biggest success story, what would he say? What about the top ten? What has been the cargo? How many airplanes have landed on their runway and what came out of the back of the big metal birds?
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