Ginkgo Bioworks has acquired AgBiome’s platform assets, including over 115,000 fully sequenced and isolated strains, over 500 million unique gene sequences, and relevant functional data and metadata, as well as AgBiome’s development pipeline. These assets will be integrated into Ginkgo Ag Biologicals Services, established with the acquisition of a Bayer agricultural biologicals R&D facility in 2022, and will expand Ginkgo’s unified metagenomics database. Combined, this creates an advanced biological discovery and development platform as well as a rich resource for the development of AI models for biological R&D.
 
Michael Miille, Ginkgo Fellow, said, “We are so excited to bring AgBiome’s incredible strain and metagenomic collection into Ginkgo. This is a world class asset that will significantly expand our capabilities and can directly benefit Ginkgo’s customers in the ag biologicals space. In addition to the platform assets and capabilities, the product concepts pipeline that has been validated by AgBiome to date provides an exciting opportunity to give customers a head-start in their product development efforts.”
 
Laura Potter, AgBiome CSO, said, “These assets represent a massive, ground-breaking investment into exploring and characterizing microbial diversity for human benefit, and we can’t think of a better home for them than the Ginkgo platform.”