Ginkgo Bioworks has acquired a biotechnology startup co-founded by gene editing pioneer Feng Zhang, part of the cell engineering company’s plan to build up technologies that can help other companies make genetic medicines.
Through the deal announced Wednesday, Ginkgo will acquire Proof Diagnostics, a biotech Zhang formed in 2020 to develop a fast- low-cost test to detect the virus that causes COVID-19. The companies didn’t disclose financial terms.
Proof is one of a handful of startups, among them Mammoth Biosciences and Sherlock Biosciences, that launched in recent years to use gene editing tools to make diagnostic tests. The company was launched by Zhang — who’s helped start multiple gene editing startups, among them Editas Medicine and Beam Therapeutics — as well as MIT scientists Omar Abudayyeh and Jonathan Gootenberg, and Sid Shenai. The group started Proof to address “an emergent need: combating the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to the company’s website.
Proof submitted an emergency use authorization request to the Food and Drug Administration in 2022 for its COVID-19 test, but hasn’t provided a public update about the diagnostic or its technology since.
In the meantime, the tools Proof harnessed to develop that test have drawn Ginkgo’s attention. The company owns libraries of DNA-cutting enzymes that can be used in gene editing experiments. Those enzymes, called OMEGAs, are “smaller and more diverse” than many others used in gene editing, which could make them easier to deliver into cells, Ginkgo said in a statement. They, along with Proof’s associated intellectual property, are the main focus of Ginkgo’s acquisition.
“Integrating Proof’s technologies and libraries gives our customers a new tool to overcome the limitations of current gene editing systems,” Jason Kelly, Ginkgo’s CEO, said in a statement.
For Ginkgo, the deal is part of a broader push to acquire technology platforms other biotechs can use to make genetic medicines. In 2023, the company acquired startup StrideBio to get access to a way of discovering and engineering the capsids, which deliver the complex treatments. Ginkgo also has a collaboration with Arbor Biotechnologies to create precise editing tools and, on Wednesday, acquired Patch Biosciences, which is using artificial intelligence to design genetic medicines.
Boston-based Ginkgo went public in 2021 by merging with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, that valued it at $15 billion. However, shares have lost more than 85% of their value since, and closed at less than $2 apiece on Tuesday.
The company separately acquired privately held AI drug discovery biotech Reverie Labs on Wednesday as well. Terms weren’t disclosed.
