Biology is getting easier to engineer
DNA is an exponential technology. The cost of reading and writing in the language of life has been getting steadily cheaper for decades. All around DNA, the ways that we design and build living things are evolving like an ecosystem. Laboratory automation, gene editors like CRISPR, big-data metabolomics, machine learning and more are changing every industry that biology touches.
Synthetic biology is the science of making biology easier to engineer and the tech stack of tools built for that purpose.
The foundry is the physical and digital infrastructure at Ginkgo Bioworks that brings many synthetic biology tools together into one place.
Foundry Theory, this blog and video series, will explore what it all means for you, a technology developer who wants to build with biology.
Foundry Theory will make biology easier to understand
The scale and complexity of Ginkgo’s foundry is unlike anything that has existed before in biotech. As of this writing, it represents about half a billion dollars in infrastructure: robotics, software, genetic tools, data.
As a platform company, Ginkgo does not use the foundry to develop our own biological products. Instead, the hundreds of human experts who work in the foundry create engineered organisms as a service for Ginkgo’s many commercial partners. These partners are the foundry developers, using Ginkgo’s platform to build their bioproducts and biotechnologies.
The goal of Foundry Theory is to translate the capabilities of this incredible space for our current and future developers.
What does the foundry make possible that wasn’t possible before?
How does foundry biotechnology change the way we build companies?
What does it mean to build an R&D project around the foundry platform?
Success for us means creating more expert foundry users who can push the foundry to the edge of its potential.
Who is this for?
Foundry biotechnology is relevant for anyone in the biotech industry and anyone who follows the bioeconomy. If your field is medicine, cell therapy, gene therapy, biologics, pharmaceutical manufacturing, agriculture, food, nutrition, wellness, cosmetics, green chemistry, industrial biotechnology, biomaterials, bioremediation, sustainability, carbon or climate technologies, this is for you.
Synthetic biologists. We’re going to be thinking about the frontiers of biology as a technology, looking for the current limits and trying to push them back.
Biotech R&D teams. We’ll describe the capabilities that Ginkgo has today and the foundry services that might be able to support your current projects.
Anyone who builds with biology. We’ll translate the technical landscape into practical terms for people who care about products.
What kind of content should you expect?
This will be in primarily video format, released on a weekly basis. We’ll include transcripts and graphics for people who prefer to read at their own pace.
Tech demos. Cool technology and new capabilities as they come online.
Case studies. Finished projects that delivered for our customers.
Sense-making. New mental models for biology and biotech R&D.
Who makes Foundry Theory?
Foundry Theory is a production of the Sociotechnical Studio at Ginkgo Bioworks. We’re a multidisciplinary team designing and communicating the future of synthetic biology. Come and join us for this adventure!
