Milestones
- Launches lab-robot and data services2024Complete.
Most important updates
- Oct 2022
Current obstacles
- Business modelPartner income has been small and uneven vs. costs; it must prove people will pay for data and robots.
Physics limits
- Biology runs on its own clockBacteria double in about 20 minutes and human cells in about a day. Robots can go faster, but growth and response times set a floor on how quickly experiments finish.
- Tiny liquid volumes misbehaveBelow about a microlitre, evaporation, surface tension and droplets clinging to tips make pipetting imprecise. That limits how far experiments can be shrunk.
- Cells are noisyIdentical cells in identical wells still vary with tiny changes in temperature, handling and genetics. Reliable answers need many repeats, which caps real throughput.
How it works
Carts
Instruments on wheels
Each lab instrument sits on a cart with a robot arm; carts link together on a track so a lab can be rearranged like modules.
Software
Scheduling the robots
Software turns an experiment plan into steps and routes plates between carts, so runs go around the clock without people.
Data
Selling measurements
Ginkgo also runs large, standardised experiments and sells the results as data for training biology AI models.
Update log
Oct 2022
- Minor: FilingCommercial
About Ginkgo Bioworks
Ginkgo Bioworks
Engineering cells, lab robots, data
Boston synthetic-biology company that built a big robot lab to engineer microbes for partners in pharma, farming and industry. After listing in 2021 and years of losses, it now sells lab robots and biology data for training AI.
- Listed in Sep 2021 at about $15B; shares later fell over 95%.
- Now sells lab robots and data-making services alongside cell-engineering projects.
ginkgobioworks.com (opens ginkgobioworks.com)Company profile →
- Founded
- 200818 yrs
- Headquarters
- United States
- Status
- Public
- Listed
- DNA (opens google.com)NYSE
- Valuation
- public
- Works in
- BiotechSynthetic biology
- Coverage
- 1 program · 3 updateslatest 1 Aug 2024checked 25 Sep
- People
- Jason Kelly (opens ginkgo.bio)Co-founder and CEOReshma Shetty (opens en.wikipedia.org)Co-founder