Multi-project agreement involves engineering
of anaerobic species, a critical component for microbiome
medicines
SAN
DIEGO and BOSTON,
April 12,
2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Persephone Biosciences Inc., a
synthetic biology company reimagining patient and infant health,
and Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA), the leading horizontal
platform for cell programming, today announced a collaboration to
develop a novel therapeutics based on the bacterial genus
Bacteroides.
Bacteroides species are among the most common
members of the microbiota of animals, especially in the
gastrointestinal tract, and are likely a useful tool for stable and
long-term delivery of microbial medicines. Unlike many other gut
microbes, Bacteroides have been shown to be a good candidate
for genetic engineering. Persephone is pioneering the use of
synthetic biology for the development of microbial products that
impact patient and infant health, which requires the ability to
engineer Bacteroides strains for therapeutic applications.
This demands a set of reliable and generalizable genetic tools for
rapid Bacteroides engineering to optimize therapeutic
properties. Ginkgo and Persephone will collaborate on the design
and synthesis of such a toolkit as well as the development of novel
microbial therapeutic using such tool kit.
"We love supporting early-stage biotechs like Persephone to
accelerate groundbreaking and meaningful work at its very genesis,"
said Jason Kelly, co-founder and CEO
of Ginkgo Bioworks. "The microbial medicines space is one we are
deeply committed to, and we look forward to further developing our
anaerobic engineering capability to help foster the next-generation
treatments Persephone is developing."
"This collaboration not only provides Persephone with critical
engineering capabilities, but also sets the stage for us to further
partner with Ginkgo, and access its platform's scale, on additional
future projects," said Stephanie
Culler, co-founder and CEO of Persephone Biosciences. "We
believe Ginkgo's scalability provides us with the opportunity to
de-risk and accelerate our programs, which in turn could enable us
to improve patient outcomes faster."
About Persephone Biosciences
Persephone is pioneering
the use of synthetic biology for the development of microbial
products that impact patient and infant health. Persephone is
building an end-to-end platform to industrialize the development of
engineered cells that restore health to damaged human ecosystems.
The company was founded in the summer of 2017 by synthetic and
metabolic engineering pioneers, Stephanie Culler PhD, and Steve Van
Dien PhD. For more information, visit
www.persephonebiosciences.com.
About Ginkgo Bioworks
Ginkgo is building a platform to
enable customers to program cells as easily as we can program
computers. The company's platform is enabling biotechnology
applications across diverse markets, from food and agriculture to
industrial chemicals to pharmaceuticals. Ginkgo has also actively
supported a number of COVID-19 response efforts, including K-12
pooled testing, vaccine manufacturing optimization and therapeutics
discovery. For more information,
visit www.ginkgobioworks.com.
Forward-Looking Statements of Ginkgo Bioworks
This
press release contains certain forward-looking statements within
the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements
regarding the potential success of the partnership and Ginkgo's
cell programming platform. These forward-looking statements
generally are identified by the words "believe," "can," "project,"
"potential," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend,"
"strategy," "future," "opportunity," "plan," "may," "should,"
"will," "would," "will be," "will continue," "will likely result,"
and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are
predictions, projections and other statements about future events
that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a
result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could
cause actual future events to differ materially from the
forward-looking statements in this press release, including but not
limited to: (i) the effect of Ginkgo's business combination with
Soaring Eagle Acquisition Corp. ("Soaring Eagle") on Ginkgo's
business relationships, performance, and business generally, (ii)
risks that the business combination disrupts current plans of
Ginkgo and potential difficulties in Ginkgo's employee retention,
(iii) the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted
against Ginkgo related to its business combination with Soaring
Eagle, (iv) volatility in the price of Ginkgo's securities now that
it is a public company due to a variety of factors, including
changes in the competitive and highly regulated industries in which
Ginkgo operates and plans to operate, variations in performance
across competitors, changes in laws and regulations affecting
Ginkgo's business and changes in the combined capital structure,
(v) the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other
expectations after the completion of the business combination, and
identify and realize additional opportunities, (vi) the risk of
downturns in demand for products using synthetic biology, (vii) the
unpredictability of the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic and the
demand for COVID-19 testing and the commercial viability of our
COVID-19 testing business, and (viii) changes to the biosecurity
industry, including due to advancements in technology, emerging
competition and evolution in industry demands, standards and
regulations. The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. You
should carefully consider the foregoing factors and the other risks
and uncertainties described in the "Risk Factors" section of
Ginkgo's annual report on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on March
29, 2022 and other documents filed by Ginkgo from time to
time with the SEC. These filings identify and address other
important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events
and results to differ materially from those contained in the
forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only
as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put
undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and Ginkgo assumes no
obligation and does not intend to update or revise these
forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,
future events, or otherwise. Ginkgo does not give any assurance
that it will achieve its expectations.
GINKGO BIOWORKS INVESTOR
CONTACT:
investors@ginkgobioworks.com
GINKGO BIOWORKS MEDIA
CONTACT:
press@ginkgobioworks.com
PERSEPHONE BIOSCIENCES CONTACTS:
Dr. Stephanie Culler
CEO and Co-founder
Persephone Biosciences, Inc.
press@persephonebiome.com
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SOURCE Ginkgo Bioworks