#researchshort -ish
🧬 $DNA Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings 🧬
$DNA is a biotech company from the United States founded in 2009 by scientists from MIT and headed by Tom Knight. The company specializes in using genetic engineering to produce bacteria with industrial applications. $DNA is an analytics company that designs microorganisms for customers in a range of industries. It is the self-proclaimed "Organism Company" and is one of the world's largest privately held biotech companies. On 11 May 2021, $DNA announced plans of going public through a merger with SPAC Soaring Eagle at a $17.5 billion valuation. On 14 May 2021, Ginkgo announced its new ticker for the NYSE will be $DNA . The ticker was previously used by Genentech, who stopped using the ticker after they were acquired by Roche. Trading began September 17, 2021.
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💊 Antibiotics 💊
Antibiotic resistance is a growing worldwide problem, endangering thousands of people across the globe and threatening modern medicine. Annually, over 700,000 people die from antibiotic-resistant infections. The United Nations projects that this figure could reach 10 million by 2050 (United Nations IAGC, 2019). Through $DNA 's collaboration with Roche, a global pioneer in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics focused on advancing science to improve people’s lives, $DNA is focused on discovering new potential classes of antibacterials. Their method is to mine bacterial genomes for novel pathways, and then engineer these pathways to produce molecules that they can test for antibacterial activity. Their partnership will allow Roche to advance the most successful of these molecules. The integration of their genome mining platform with $DNA 's state of the art sequencing capabilities, extensive biological codebase, bioinformatics and machine learning tools for gene discovery and strain engineering expertise brings forth unprecedented power to accelerate the search for new therapeutics, including next-generation antibiotics. The genomic database includes more than 135,000 bacterial strains. These strains have the potential to encode more than four million biosynthetic gene clusters, which can be used not only for the discovery of novel antibiotics and other therapeutics, but also for applications across food, agriculture and fragrances
https://www.ginkgobioworks.com/our-work/combating-antibiotic-resistant-bacteria/
🥕 Agriculture 🥕
Joyn Bio was founded to create sustainable and cost effective solutions for growers—using microbes. Owned jointly by Leaps by Bayer and $DNA , Joyn leverages Bayer’s expertise in plant biologics and $DNA ’s automated foundry to revolutionize agriculture. Joyn capitalizes on the power of the plant microbiome to improve strains, from pest control to enhanced nutrient acquisition and resistance to crop disease. The plant microbiome is essential for global farming practices, but much of the power of microbes has not yet been tapped into. Primarily housed in $DNA ’s lab space and backed by Ginkgo’s Foundry, Joyn’s team of microbiologists and engineers can test thousands of samples at a time thanks to high throughput automation. This enables systems-level analysis of thousands of strains isolated from soil and rapid prototyping of engineered strains, which are then tested in greenhouse and field conditions at Joyn’s 12,500 square foot testing facility in Woodland, CA.
Joyn’s first challenge is reducing the amount of industrial nitrogen fertilizer used to grow crops like corn, wheat, or rice. The industrial production and application of nitrogen fertilizer uses an estimated 3% of total worldwide natural gas and contributes to 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. By enabling microbes to produce nitrogen in the roots of non-legume crops that can’t fix nitrogen themselves, Joyn could dramatically decrease agriculture’s environmental and energy footprint. Currently, Joyn is putting their engineered, nitrogen-fixing microbes to the test in field trials throughout the US.
https://www.ginkgobioworks.com/our-work/joyn-bio/
🍀 Cannabinoids 🍀
Cannabis is a rapidly growing industry, predicted to reach $57 billion worldwide by 2027. The cannabis plant produces hundreds of different cannabinoids with a range of potential pharmaceutical applications. The most highly concentrated of these compounds are THC and CBD; other molecules such as CBC, CBG, and THCV are present only in minute quantities, making them impractical to extract and purify. While the first two compounds currently constitute over 80% of the current cannabinoid market, rare cannabinoid variants are a significant new market opportunity if they can be produced in pure form at scale with uses ranging from antioxidants to therapeutics. By transferring the DNA sequences for cannabinoid production into organisms such as yeast and E. coli, and using the foundry and our existing high-throughput fermentation processes, $DNA is building strains that produce these cannabinoids at high quality and purity, starting with eight target cannabinoids. The cultured cannabinoids are identical to those extracted from the plant using traditional methods. By capitalizing on the power of biological manufacturing, we can unlock access to medically important cannabinoids that can be scaled up and produced reliably.
$CRON a vertically integrated cannabis company, has gathered extensive data on the full spectrum of cannabinoids and their properties to determine the best molecular pathways for synthesizing them. To scale manufacturing of products from this partnership, $CRON has purchased an 84,000 square foot fermentation facility in Winnipeg, Canada. "We’re thrilled to be working with Cronos as they build the world’s most innovative cannabinoid platform."
https://www.ginkgobioworks.com/our-work/producing-cultured-cannabinoids/
🤝 mRNA Victoria and $DNA 🤝
mRNA Victoria, the agency of the Australian State of Victoria Government charged with building the State's mRNA manufacturing and research capability, and $DNA , the leading horizontal platform for cell programming, today announced a partnership to support vaccine development, biosecurity initiatives, and the application to $DNA 's platform in the pharmaceutical and biotech, food and agriculture, and mining and bioremediation/recycling sectors in Australia. As the first step in the partnership, Ginkgo will establish an office in Melbourne in what is hoped to be a future long-term business expansion within Australia. $DNA 's synthetic biology platform infrastructure and expertise brings critical capability to Victoria's biotech sector, and adds significant momentum to the State's rapidly growing biotechnology ecosystem. $DNA 's cell programming capabilities have supported innovations in diagnostics and vaccine design and manufacturing, as well as ongoing research and development of innovative products such as living medicines, therapeutic proteins, and gene and cell therapies. Further, the company has established one of the largest nationwide COVID testing platforms in the United States, helping communities across the country keep kids in classrooms and COVID out. The company has also established an Airport Biosurveillance Program in collaboration with XpresCheck and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
"Melbourne is one of the leading biomedical research communities in the world. We have to forge international collaborations like this because, as we have all learned, biology doesn't respect borders. We are incredibly excited to work with mRNA Victoria and hope to expand further into the Australian market," said Matt McKnight, Chief Commercial Officer, Ginkgo Bioworks.
Victoria is a leader in mRNA research and manufacturing in Australia, with the nation's most sophisticated and largest mRNA ecosystem and commercialization capability. Through mRNA Victoria, the Victorian Government will continue to attract world leading biotech innovators to invest in Victoria, creating new jobs and fostering innovation in novel RNA treatments.
"Victoria has a strong RNA ecosystem and is ideally placed to develop a sophisticated supply chain with critical capability from clinical development to the establishment of onshore mRNA manufacturing to the critical biosecurity technologies that enable us to reopen borders and get back to our lives," said Jaala Pulford, Victoria's Minister for Innovation, Medical Research and the Digital Economy.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mrna-victoria-ginkgo-bioworks-announce-120000507.html
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