Synthetic biology: In-house vs. external strain optimization

November 18, 2022 | Case Study

Companies employing synthetic biology (synbio) today are pursuing different avenues for product development to fit their talent and capital capabilities, as well as their go-to-market timelines. One aspect of product development that's been either done in-house or outsourced is strain engineering, a key cog in the bioproduct production process. Many companies refer to their internal strain engineering platforms as biofoundries where they have libraries of strains that they can use as starting points in design-build-test-learn cycles. A company's internal foundry is a beachhead, allowing it to efficiently maintain and curate trade secrets to optimize its product development processes. However, many companies use external service platforms for their strain engineering needs. Ginkgo Bioworks is the behemoth in the field that tends to receive the majority share of business in the service provider market.