Ginkgo acquires FGen and its ultra-high-throughput screening platform for strain development and optimization.
Ginkgo is excited to announce the acquisition of FGen AG (“FGen”), a Swiss company specializing in strain development and optimization. FGen has developed an ultra-high-throughput (uHT) screening platform built on nanoliter reactor technology. We believe that FGen’s technology will significantly enhance Ginkgo’s cell screening capabilities and enable Ginkgo to explore wider expanses of genetic design space, increasing the likelihood of finding enzymes, pathways, and strains or cell lines that meet the product specifications of our diverse customer base.
Ginkgo continues to invest in creating the premier horizontal platform for cell programming.
Ginkgo and FGen plan to close the transaction promptly. We expect that the integration of FGen’s platform will greatly increase the capacity of Ginkgo’s Design-Build-Test-Learn strain development engine, a foundation of our technology stack. By adding this new uHT screening platform to our its existing HT screening systems, we aim to be able to routinely analyze the performance of millions of pooled genetic prototypes. Our goal is to improve the quality of genetic designs that feed into our downstream workflows for strain characterization and validation. FGen’s platform is extremely flexible across organisms, pathways, and target products. The platform can be deployed to screen for both intracellular and secreted target products as well as both small molecules and proteins.
The uHT screening platform can accommodate diverse organisms including bacteria, yeast, filamentous species, and mammalian cells — all cell types that we use extensively at Ginkgo.
We’re committed to creating the premier cell programming platform by investing in and integrating best-in-class tools from around the world and deploying them broadly across our programs. We’ve worked with the FGen team for several years and believe their technology and world-class scientists will allow us to further improve our ability to explore an exponentially wider design space and deliver more value for our customers.
“Our team has spent the last decade building one of the most advanced screening platforms in the world in the hopes of enabling breakthrough discoveries and products across industries,” said Andreas Meyer, Chief Executive Officer of FGen. “We are excited to be welcomed onto the Ginkgo platform where we can deploy this technology much more broadly and better support customers and their world-changing work.”
Under the terms of the transaction, FGen will receive upfront payment and additional contingent consideration related to, among other things, the successful integration and deployment of the FGen technology across Ginkgo programs.
Find the full press release here along with all of the latest news from the Ginkgo team.
And visit FGen’s website to check out an art gallery showcasing their work. Here’s two selected pieces:
