feralinprog

Thanks for answering our questions, Jason and Anna Marie! EDIT: And Tom Knight, as well :)

I've got several questions:

1. I haven't heard Ginkgo discuss the scale-up problem in synthetic biology. Do you think it will be an issue for you? If not, is it because you believe you have the technical skills (or data sets) at Ginkgo to be able to scale to large fermentation tanks, or is it because you don't think your customers need/want cells that can produce molecules effectively at very large scale, or is it for some other reason?

2. I know that Amyris focuses on yeast cells, while Zymergen uses mammalian cells for fermentation. What cell types will you focus on, and why?

3. Do you foresee advances in computational biology that would allow simulating entire cell pathways instead of requiring thousands of physical cell tests? Overall, how much simulation vs. experimental testing do you do at Ginkgo?

4. Who would you say are your biggest/strongest competitors in the field? (Private/public companies, research groups, etc.)

Let me add that I'm quite impressed with Ginkgo's work so far, and I plan to be a long-term investor but am looking for the best entry point. Good luck to you and your team!

They talked about this in the livestream but didn't actually write down an answer here. If you remind me later, I can try to find the exact timestamp later, once the livestream is over and it becomes a normal youtube video.

EDIT: It's about 1h12m in to the stream.

EDIT 2: Haha, I should have refreshed before writing this response. Still, they do talk a lot more in the livestream than they're writing here, so it'd be worth listening to their response in the livestream regardless.

EDIT 3: Here's the timestamp: https://youtu.be/32VTF-dFcz8?t=4353

See their Allonia (iirc) partnership.

For context, TK = Tom Knight, one of the co-founders.

Huh, is that going to be right near Amyris and Zymergen?