Ginkgo invests $80M in Synlogic as partners collaborate on synthetic microbe development

Encouraged by a previous pilot collaboration, Ginkgo will invest $80 million in Synlogic and use its automated cell programming platform to accelerate the development of the latter's pipeline of synthetic microbes.

For their initial partnership in 2017, Synlogic Inc. (NASDAQ:SYBX) had developed a synthetic microbe against an undisclosed disease that was effective in animals, but wasn't ready for clinical development, Synlogic CMO, President and CEO Aoife Brennan told BioCentury. The biotech handed the strain off to Ginkgo Bioworks Inc. (Boston, Mass.), which sent back an optimized strain with "substantially improved performance."...