FREDsense will leverage Ginkgo's strain
development platform capabilities to develop advanced biosensors
capable of detecting harmful molecules and toxins in any water
source
CALGARY,
Canada and BOSTON,
April 13,
2022 /PRNewswire/ -- FREDsense Technologies Corp, a
next generation water quality platform company leveraging synthetic
biology to build field kits for faster, cheaper, and more efficient
analysis, and Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA), the leading horizontal
platform for cell programming, today announced a partnership to
build biosensors for water quality monitoring and detection.
Through this partnership, Ginkgo seeks to build four distinct
microbial strain biosensors, compatible with FREDsense's
field-ready hardware for remote water quality monitoring
applications.
Water quality has become a growing environmental and public
health concern, increasing the demand for scalable monitoring and
testing systems. With conventional water quality tests,
transporting samples to labs for chemical analysis can lead to
lengthy delays in reporting. FREDsense builds portable solutions to
efficiently assess the chemicals in the water at the source,
allowing for rapid modification of water treatment processes in
real-time without the need for external lab equipment.
"Water is our most critical resource, and we now have the
technology to detect in real-time many of the threats or
contaminants that can impact the water that our environments and
communities depend on," says David
Lloyd, CEO of FREDsense. "Through this partnership with
Ginkgo, we aim to introduce rapid, simple and accurate testing to
deliver water quality monitoring systems to those that most need
it. We believe that synthetic biology is the key to solving some of
the biggest challenges facing the water industry globally and are
very excited to partner with Ginkgo on this vision."
The biosensors in development by Ginkgo aim to enable real-time
field detection of harmful molecules, and may be used to generate
solutions for groundwater and industrial water management
systems.
"Partnering with FREDsense is an exciting opportunity to apply
Ginkgo's strain development capabilities to powerful biosensor
technology for an important application," said Jason Kelly, CEO of Ginkgo Bioworks. "Protecting
our water sources is a mission critical initiative: life on this
planet as we know it depends on it. We're eager to work toward
enhancing the capabilities of FREDsense's platform to monitor for
harmful contaminants in water."
About FREDsense Technologies Corp.
FREDsense is a
world leader in portable and rapid water instrumentation systems
for the water industry. We specialize in analyzing water chemistry
in real-time using next generation biological sensor technology.
With modular and customizable sensor solutions, FREDsense is moving
analytical lab analysis into the field empowering water utilities,
environmental consulting firms and heavy industry to start
optimizing their water sources in ways it has never been possible
before. We are FREDsense, and we are building better
biosensors.
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 and objectives 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
FREDsense MEDIA INQUIRIES
questions@fredsense.com
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SOURCE Ginkgo Bioworks