Partnership will leverage Ginkgo's high
throughput screening capabilities to identify potential therapeutic
candidates for autoimmune diseases in Microba's extensive strain
bank
BRISBANE, Australia and BOSTON, April 4,
2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Microba Life Sciences (ASX:MAP),
a precision microbiome science company, and Ginkgo
Bioworks (NYSE: DNA), the leading horizontal platform for cell
programming, today announced a partnership to identify
single-strain, live bacteria product (LBP) candidates against
autoimmune diseases. The collaboration aims to build on Microba's
precision approach to LBP development with an in-depth evaluation
of the company's strains using Ginkgo's high throughput,
automated screening capabilities.
The human gut microbiome is composed of trillions of bacteria
that have an outsized influence on human health and disease. In
recent years, scientists have developed a deeper understanding of
the relationship between specific bacteria residing in the gut and
various health outcomes, leading to a growing interest in using
bacteria for therapeutic applications. As clinical trials using
live biotherapeutics – biological products that contain live
microorganisms applicable to the prevention, treatment, or cure of
a disease – have delivered promising results, there is growing
consensus that live biotherapeutics may represent a major class of
therapeutics in the coming years.
"We believe the human microbiome currently represents a missing
piece in the treatment of major chronic diseases, and as a result a
number of microbiome-based therapeutics are progressing through
clinical development globally" said Luke
Reid, CEO at Microba. "Ginkgo's high throughput screening
automation combined with our novel data-driven approach to
therapeutic discovery from the microbiome can potentially
accelerate development of breakthrough new drugs for autoimmune
diseases."
Through this partnership, Ginkgo will provide high-throughput
screening for Microba's proprietary library of human
microbiome-isolated strains, with the goal of improving treatment
for autoimmune diseases such as lupus, psoriatic arthritis and
certain autoimmune liver diseases. Microba plans to leverage
Ginkgo's high-throughput anaerobic culturing, multi-omics data
collection and analysis, functional bioassay screening, and media
and fermentation optimization capabilities to generate data sets
that may help characterize potential therapeutic and
non-therapeutic uses of the strains. The initial partnership
combining Microba's biobank and Ginkgo's anaerobic development
capabilities is expected to run approximately two years.
"Microba is doing truly innovative work during an exciting time
for the field of microbiome science,"said Jennifer Wipf, Senior Vice President, Commercial
Cell Engineering of Ginkgo. "We're happy to welcome new partners
like Microba as we apply our platform to more applications in the
living therapeutics and microbiome space."
Microba Life Sciences plans to launch its Initial Public
Offering (IPO) on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on
April 5. In connection with the
partnership, Ginkgo is investing $3.5
million USD in Microba. The IPO was fully underwritten by
Canaccord Genuity and Bell
Potter.
About Microba Life
Sciences
Microba Life Sciences is a precision microbiome company driving
the discovery and development of novel therapeutics for major
chronic diseases to improve human health. With world-leading
technology for measuring the human gut microbiome, Microba employs
a human-first data-driven approach to identify therapeutic leads
which are naturally derived from a healthy human gut. Leveraging a
globally unique, proprietary databank, Microba has established a
unique, repeatable Therapeutic Platform to address large unmet
clinical needs for chronic diseases with microbiome-based
treatments. For more information, visit www.microba.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
MICROBA LIFE SCIENCES INVESTOR
CONTACT
investor@microba.com
MICROBA LIFE SCIENCES MEDIA
CONTACT
media@microba.com
View original content to download
multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/microba-life-sciences-and-ginkgo-bioworks-announce-partnership-to-discover-novel-live-biotherapeutics-301516448.html
SOURCE Ginkgo Bioworks