Ginkgo Bioworks, a company focused on cell programming and biosecurity, has made a significant acquisition in the form of StrideBio’s adeno-associated virus (AAV) capsid discovery and engineering platform assets. The acquisition includes the transfer of certain additional in-license agreements to Ginkgo, with a secondary close scheduled to occur later.
The addition of StrideBio’s capabilities and intellectual property (IP) will be integrated into Ginkgo’s existing AAV gene therapy development platform, allowing customers to take advantage of new tools for effectively targeting different tissue types and potentially improving the safety profile of future gene therapies.
Furthermore, Ginkgo will also receive the IP and data for StrideBio’s lead preclinical asset for Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC), a rare genetic heart disease. Ginkgo plans to sell or out-license this asset to a commercial partner.
The acquisition focuses solely on StrideBio’s enabling platform IP and does not include real estate. According to Narendra Maheshwari, Head of Mammalian Engineering at Ginkgo, combining Ginkgo’s engineering and discovery capabilities in enzymes, regulatory elements, and capsids will allow for a holistic design approach to AAV gene therapy. This will enable Ginkgo to support partners across the entire viral vector design process.
Ginkgo has been expanding its work and capabilities in gene therapy over the past few years through various acquisitions and partnerships. In addition to the StrideBio acquisition, Ginkgo has acquired Circularis’ proprietary circular RNA and promoter screening platform, partnered with Biogen to improve AAV manufacturing, and partnered with Selecta Biosciences to develop AAV capsids with altered tropism and immunogenicity.
Ginkgo’s capabilities in efficiently generating a large set of candidates for testing, scaled protein engineering, and the application of sequencing and computational pipelines to accelerate the analysis of capsid effectiveness in tissues of interest make it well-suited to leverage assets like those acquired from StrideBio.
Acquiring StrideBio’s AAV capsid discovery and engineering platform assets is a significant development for Ginkgo Bioworks and the gene therapy industry. It strengthens Ginkgo’s position as a leader in AAV gene therapy development. In addition, it will allow the company to provide its customers with new tools to effectively target different tissue types and potentially improve the safety profile of future gene therapies.
Photo by Yassine Khalfalli on Unsplash
You must log in to post a comment.