Visolis and Ginkgo Bioworks Announce Partnership to Improve Microbial Strain for Bio-Isoprene and Sustainable Aviation Fuel Production

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Apr 24, 2023, 07:00 ET

Partnership aims to enable cost-effective decarbonization of rubber tire manufacturing and sustainable aviation fuel production

HAYWARD, Calif. and BOSTON, April 24, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Visolis, a company combining advanced bioengineering with chemical catalysis to provide sustainable, carbon-negative materials, today announced a partnership with Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA), which is building the leading platform for cell programming and biosecurity. Visolis aims to leverage Ginkgo's extensive capabilities in strain engineering to improve upon an existing microbial strain for the commercial production of a key feedstock ingredient used to make bio-based isoprene and sustainable aviation fuels.

Isoprene is a key monomer used for commercial scale synthetic rubber production. Achieving the production of bio-based isoprene at scale represents a significant step toward decarbonizing tire manufacturing. Isoprene can also be used as an intermediate for high performance, lower carbon intensity sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production. Visolis' production efforts are geared towards providing molecules with higher energy density, lower viscosity and better compatibility with engines than traditional SAF processes. Visolis' SAF has the potential to work synergistically with these other processes to enable aviation through a 100% sustainable fuel.

"We are incredibly proud of our platform that is producing carbon-negative materials and fuels," said Deepak Dugar, founder and CEO at Visolis. "As we strive to continue improving our technology towards commercial readiness, partnering with Ginkgo to accelerate our progress just makes sense. With their large codebase of strains and pathway expertise, which can shorten strain engineering cycles, as well as their scalable foundry capabilities, we believe we can work towards bringing our process to the next level."

Achieving bio-based isoprene production at scale is one of the most challenging biochemical synthesis processes due to the inherent properties of the molecule, including its combustibility, volatility and reactivity. Visolis has developed a novel process by using a more stable intermediate, making isoprene through a two-step manufacturing process and enabling more efficient and reliable production. Through the partnership with Ginkgo, the two companies are working to further optimize the efficiency of this biomanufacturing process.

"Visolis has demonstrated early success in scaling production of isoprene because of their ingenuity in combining bioengineering and chemical processing," said Ena Cratsenburg, Chief Business Officer, Ginkgo Bioworks. "We're thrilled to collaborate with Visolis to optimize this innovative and sustainable process with the power of synthetic biology. This is exactly the kind of positive change that bioengineering can bring to industry."

About Ginkgo Bioworks

Ginkgo Bioworks is the leading horizontal platform for cell programming, providing flexible, end-to-end services that solve challenges for organizations across diverse markets, from food and agriculture to pharmaceuticals to industrial and specialty chemicals. Ginkgo's biosecurity and public health unit, Concentric by Ginkgo, is building global infrastructure for biosecurity to empower governments, communities, and public health leaders to prevent, detect and respond to a wide variety of biological threats. For more information, visit ginkgobioworks.com and concentricbyginkgo.com, read our blog, or follow us on social media channels such as Twitter (@Ginkgo and @ConcentricByGBW), Instagram (@GinkgoBioworks and @ConcentricByGinkgo), or LinkedIn.

About Visolis

Visolis is developing a decarbonization platform helping industries ranging from personal care to apparel and transportation achieve net zero emission targets. The Visolis platform combines artificial intelligence, synthetic biology and chemical catalysis to efficiently produce a portfolio of carbon negative chemicals and net-zero emissions sustainable aviation fuels. Visolis's proprietary process transforms sustainable raw materials, including waste biomass and CO2, into bio-based chemicals with diverse applications ranging from drop-in replacements for commodity petrochemicals to higher performance fuels.

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 capabilities and potential success 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) volatility in the price of Ginkgo's securities 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, and changes in laws and regulations affecting Ginkgo's business, (ii) the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations, and to identify and realize additional business opportunities, (iii) the risk of downturns in demand for products using synthetic biology, (iv) 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, (v) changes to the biosecurity industry, including due to advancements in technology, emerging competition and evolution in industry demands, standards and regulations, (vi) our ability to realize the expected benefits of merger and acquisition transactions, (vii) the outcome of any legal proceedings against Ginkgo, including as a result of recent acquisitions, (viii) our ability to realize the expected benefits from and the success of our Foundry platform programs, (ix) our ability to successfully develop engineered cells, bioprocesses, data packages or other deliverables, and (x) the product development or commercialization success of our customers. 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 13, 2023 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.

VISOLIS CONTACT:
press@visolisbio.com

GINKGO BIOWORKS INVESTOR CONTACT:
investors@ginkgobioworks.com

GINKGO BIOWORKS MEDIA CONTACT:
[email protected]

SOURCE Ginkgo Bioworks