Jun 7, 2023

AgBiome to use Ginkgo Bioworks technology

AgBiome, a leader in global microbial innovation, and Ginkgo Bioworks, which is building the leading platform for cell programming and biosecurity, have formed a partnership to optimize the performance of products in AgBiome’s pipeline of agricultural biologicals.

Organizations developing next generation agricultural inputs can access Ginkgo’s platform to accelerate discovery and deployment of new products. By leveraging Ginkgo’s ultra-high throughput encapsulated screening capabilities, AgBiome aims to provide growers with new and improved live microbial strain products.

The biological crop protection market has significantly grown in recent years as growers have increasingly sought effective and sustainable alternatives to synthetic pest control products. By leveraging Ginkgo’s suite of advanced biology tools, AgBiome aims to enhance the breadth and efficacy of novel biological products.

“We believe we can identify improved variants at massive scale, which can help deliver more potent agricultural biologicals and bring the next generation of products to market,” Magalie Guilhabert, Ginkgo Bioworks’ head of Ag Biologicals, said in a news release. “We are thrilled to work with an industry leader like AgBiome as we seek to optimize live microbial strain products in their pipeline and provide even better solutions to growers around the world.”

“AgBiome is committed to creating the most effective crop protection products, and we are always looking for new technologies to enable better performance,” Scott Uknes, co-founder and co-CEO of AgBiome, said in the release. “We are excited to utilize Ginkgo’s capabilities in ultra-high throughput assay development to evolve the next generation of biologicals as we continue to provide growers with improved product efficacy.”

AgBiome’s crop protection products, discovered using its proprietary Genesis platform, are based on natural microbial strains that have undergone extensive testing and evaluation to ensure consistent performance.

Ginkgo’s ultra-high throughput encapsulated screening technology makes it possible to search through up to 1 million strain variants in a single run and select the best performing candidates for further development. Built on nanoliter encapsulation technology, Ginkgo’s screening capabilities provide nanoscale growth and assay compartments and make it possible to greatly reduce the screening time for large libraries.