Ginkgo Bioworks, one of the organism companies, announced its participation in a suite of US government programs, establishing a strategic initiative in biosecurity. The power of synthetic biology is poised to reinvent everything from manufacturing to medicine, but as the technology advances, safeguards must be put in place to ensure it is developed responsibly and safely, and that it is put to use to solve global issues like infectious diseases.
As part of broader US Government investment in biosecurity, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) has launched new programs to develop biosecurity tools that aim to prevent the misuse of synthetic biology.
To help reduce the danger of these potential risks, Ginkgo is a participant in IARPA's Functional Genomic and Computational Assessment of Threats (Fun GCAT) program, designing software tools to prevent the intentional or accidental production of biological threats by significantly improving existing DNA synthesis screening capabilities to identify current and future threats based on sequence function.
Ginkgo is part of the Battelle team, alongside other collaborators including synthetic DNA supplier Twist Bioscience and One Codex. As part of the effort, Ginkgo is developing algorithmic approaches to screen DNA sequences, determine if they could be pathogenic or toxic to humans or animals, predict the function of unknown sequences, and assign a threat level based on the potential for harm. Ginkgo's custom software for biological design is uniquely suited for interpreting gene product function from gene sequence and can be effectively deployed against the challenge of DNA synthesis screening.
Separately, IARPA has awarded Ginkgo a prime contract on the Finding Engineered Linked Indicators (FELIX) program. Ginkgo and partner Northrop Grumman are developing deep learning technology tools to detect whether DNA sequences have been engineered. This software tool is intended as a detector of potential bioterror or bioerror events.
"Synthetic biology is incredibly powerful, not just for the future of manufacturing but also in the evolution of biosecurity," said Jason Kelly, Ginkgo Bioworks CEO. "We look forward to leveraging our technology and working closely with other stakeholders to develop tools for monitoring potential threats, both natural and engineered.
Ginkgo has also been named a member of the Counter Weapons of Mass Destruction Consortium (CWMD), a group of companies and universities committed to developing prototype technologies for countering, neutralizing, and counterproliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Ginkgo's work may include developing enzymes that can sense and degrade a variety of chemical and biological threats.
Alongside CWMD efforts to identify and monitor potential biosecurity threats, Ginkgo is also involved in a number of initiatives focused on medical countermeasure development. Ginkgo is now part of the Medical Countermeasures Defense Consortium (MCDC), which supports the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense (JPEO-CBD) and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) to prevent, diagnose, and treat current and emerging diseases and toxins.
In addition to the IARPA and medical countermeasures programs, Ginkgo was selected as a prime contractor on the $8.27 billion Joint Enterprise Research, Development, Acquisition and Production/Procurement (JE-RDAP) ID/IQ contract. This enterprise omnibus contract vehicle is available for use by the entire Department of Defense for Chemical and Biological defense projects, with the ID/IQ contract giving the government a pathway for rapidly developing and deploying new technologies.