Ginkgo Bioworks Starts Selling the Robotic Labs Behind Its Fermentation Work

Ginkgo Bioworks has sold an autonomous laboratory to pharmaceutical group Novo Nordisk, which will be installed at their new research site in Waltham, Massachusetts. This deal marks a shift from a services relationship to a hardware sale, with Ginkgo supplying the robotics and software to run inside Novo Nordisk's US labs. The system is based on Ginkgo's Reconfigurable Automation Carts (RACs) and Catalyst software, allowing for flexibility in research programs and integration with AI agents for drafting experimental protocols.

Novo Nordisk and Ginkgo have previously collaborated on engineered expression hosts for pharmaceutical manufacturing, with the pilot phase completed in July 2023. This sale also extends Ginkgo's automation technology from strains to equipment, as seen in their partnerships with various food and ingredient companies. By providing automated labs, Ginkgo aims to streamline the research process and enable scientists to focus more on analysis and discovery rather than experimental tasks.