Both Twist Biosciences and Ginkgo Bioworks are prominent players
in the field of Synthetic biology, but they have different focuses and strengths.
Let’s take a closer look at each company:
Twist Biosciences:
Core Focus:
Twist Biosciences specializes in high-quality synthetic DNA production using its Silicon Platform. They offer custom DNA synthesis services to researchers, biotech companies, and other organizations.
Technology:
Their Silicon Based DNA synthesis platform allows for efficient and precise DNA manufacturing.
Applications:
Twist’s DNA products are used in various applications, including Gene Editing, vaccine development, Drug discovery, and more.
Collaboration with Ginkgo:
Twist has a collaboration with Ginkgo Bioworks, which includes a four-year supply agreement. Ginkgo purchases products from Twist, allowing them to test proteins and develop diverse solutions across multiple industries.
Recent Deal:
In 2022, Twist agreed to supply at least 100 million base pairs of synthetic DNA to Ginkgo over a one-year period for engineering prototype organisms.
Ginkgo Bioworks:
Core Focus:
Ginkgo is a horizontal platform for cell programming. They aim to make programming cells as easy as programming computers.
Technology:
Ginkgo’s platform enables biotechnology applications across various markets, including food, agriculture, industrial chemicals, and pharmaceuticals.
Applications:
Ginkgo focuses on organism design and engineering, optimization, and other synthetic biology services.
Collaboration with Twist:
Ginkgo collaborates with Twist to secure high volumes of DNA. They have ordered approximately one billion base pairs of synthetic DNA from Twist over the past four years for various programs.
Expansion Plans:
Ginkgo’s collaboration with Twist aims to fuel their expansion plans in the synthetic biology field.
In summary, both companies contribute significantly to the synthetic biology ecosystem, but their expertise lies in different areas.
Twist excels in DNA synthesis, while Ginkgo focuses on cell programming and organism engineering.
The collaboration between these two organizations demonstrates their commitment to advancing the field of synthetic biology.
Foot notes:
Most recently Googles "Deep Mind" Ai has been used in combination with Synbio, cell programming and gene editing, to further the advancement in cooperation with a number of companies.
With the deep, data set of Alphabet, combined with Deep Mind's cutting edge Ai, and the massive data bank that is the human DNA, medicine and medical disciplines will benefit immensely from what is coming! And, so will human kind!