Ginkgo Bioworks awarded $4.66M contract by PNNL

Ginkgo Bioworks (DNA) announced that the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, or EMSL, at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, or PNNL, a leading U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science user facility, has selected Ginkgo Automation to deliver a state-of-the-art automated anaerobic phenotyping platform at its Richland, Washington campus. This purchase marks a significant step in EMSL’s mission to advance fundamental biological research supporting U.S. energy production, ensuring leadership in the bioeconomy, and establishing critical materials supply-chain resilience. Under this $4.66M contract, Ginkgo will construct and install a fully integrated workcell comprising 18 different devices housed within a modular anaerobic chamber at EMSL. The system was designed in partnership with EMSL and will use Ginkgo Automation’s Reconfigurable Automation Cart technology, a modular and extensible automation system designed to enhance laboratory throughput, efficiency, and data quality, while remaining extremely low-touch. The system aims to enable EMSL scientists working with users of the facility to remotely operate complex end-to-end anaerobic phenotyping workflows using a diverse array of instruments, streamlining research processes and accelerating discovery. The new automation platform is expected to be fully operational at EMSL later this year, enabling researchers to advance critical work in microbial engineering, biodesign, and advancing bioeconomy fundamental science. We hope this transformative public-private partnership will catalyze innovation and advance our global leadership in biotechnology.