Ginkgo Bioworks Acquires AgBiome’s Platform Assets to Strengthen Ag Biological Discovery

Ginkgo Bioworks, a leading biotechnology company, has announced the acquisition of AgBiome’s platform assets, marking a significant expansion in its ag biological discovery and development capabilities. The acquisition includes over 115,000 fully sequenced and isolated strains, over 500 million unique gene sequences, as well as relevant functional data and metadata. These assets, coupled with AgBiome’s development pipeline, will be integrated into Ginkgo Ag Biologicals Services, bolstering Ginkgo’s proprietary unified metagenomics database.

AgBiome, founded in 2012, has been at the forefront of generating a diverse array of biological products and technologies through its Genesis Discovery Platform. While notable products like the Howler and Theia lines are not part of the acquisition, AgBiome’s extensive microbial strain library, derived from over 8,000 geographically diverse environmental samples, forms a cornerstone of the assets acquired by Ginkgo. These strains have been fully sequenced, resulting in a repository with over 500 million unique gene sequences.

The acquisition also encompasses a robust product concept pipeline, featuring a dozen validated product candidates with greenhouse or field validation. These validated assets not only lay the groundwork for future partnered programs but also serve as a valuable resource for metagenomic data mining and AI model training.

Michael Miille, Ginkgo Fellow, expressed excitement about the integration of AgBiome’s assets into Ginkgo’s platform, emphasizing the potential benefits for customers in the ag biologicals space. He highlighted the validated product concepts pipeline as an opportunity to expedite customers’ product development efforts.

Laura Potter, AgBiome’s CSO, underscored the significance of the acquisition, describing it as a substantial investment in exploring and characterizing microbial diversity for human benefit. She expressed confidence in Ginkgo Bioworks as the ideal custodian for these assets, given its track record of innovation and expertise in the biotechnology sector.