Ginkgo Bioworks Partners on Illinois-Led Team to Develop Innovative New Treatments for Oral Health

BOSTON, Nov. 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA) today announced its partnership with the Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on a five-year initiative funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). The collaboration, Microbe/phage Investigation for Generalized Health TherapY (MIGHTY), aims to develop innovative new treatments for oral health by leveraging Ginkgo's advanced capabilities in working with complex microbial consortia.

As part of the Illinois-led team, Ginkgo will apply its EncapS (Encapsulation and Screening) technology—a differentiated method for ultra-high-throughput screening—to tackle the complex challenge of discovering and characterizing potent phage-based interventions for improving health, with a focus on the oral microbiome. This technology is expected to facilitate the discovery of novel phage therapies that can target specific bacterial populations within complex microbial communities.

"It's a great opportunity to get to work with the MIGHTY team led by Illinois," said Jesse Dill, Government BD Lead at Ginkgo Bioworks. "It's a top-notch, interdisciplinary team, and we are excited to apply our screening capabilities to the complex challenge of creating potent and reliable interventions that improve health through the microbiome."

Beatriz Pacheco, Engineer at Ginkgo Bioworks, added, "Our EncapS technology is uniquely positioned to address the intricate phage-host interactions within the oral microbiome. We look forward to advancing our capabilities in phage therapies and contributing to the development of innovative treatments for oral health."

Dr. Asma Hatoum-Aslan, Associate Professor of Microbiology at Illinois, added, "Ginkgo's EncapS technology is a game-changer for our work in phage biology. It allows us to screen phage-host interactions at an unprecedented scale, accelerating the discovery of effective phage therapies. This collaboration not only advances our scientific goals but also has the potential to revolutionize how we approach bacterial infections in the oral cavity."

This partnership underscores Ginkgo's commitment to collaborating with academic groups and highlights its expertise in handling complex microbial systems. By participating in this groundbreaking program, Ginkgo aims to establish itself as a leading provider of phage isolation and screening capabilities for partners in both academia and industry.

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About Ginkgo Bioworks

Ginkgo Bioworks builds the tools that make biology easier to engineer for everyone. Ginkgo R&D Solutions delivers customizable R&D packages—such as protein engineering, nucleic acid design, and cell-free systems—giving partners a comprehensive way to accelerate innovation across therapeutics, diagnostics, & manufacturing. Ginkgo Automation sells modular, integrated laboratory automation so scientists can spend their days planning and analyzing experiments rather than pipetting in the lab. Ginkgo Datapoints uses Ginkgo's in-house automation to generate the large lab data sets to power your AI models. Ginkgo Biosecurity is building and deploying the next-generation infrastructure and technologies that global leaders need to predict, detect, and respond to a wide variety of biological threats. For more information, visit ginkgobioworks.com and ginkgobiosecurity.com, read our blog, or follow us on social media channels such as X (@Ginkgo and @Ginkgo_Biosec), Instagram (@GinkgoBioworks), Threads (@GinkgoBioworks), or LinkedIn.

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Forward-Looking Statements of Ginkgo Bioworks

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements regarding the capabilities and potential success of the partnership and Ginkgo's cell programming platform. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words "believe," "can," "project," "potential," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "strategy," "future," "opportunity," "plan," "may," "should," "will," "would," "will be," "will continue," "will likely result," and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this press release, including but not limited to: (i) our ability to realize near-term and long-term cost savings associated with our site consolidation plans, including the ability to terminate leases or find sub-lease tenants for unused facilities, (ii) volatility in the price of Ginkgo's securities due to a variety of factors, including changes in the competitive and highly regulated industries in which Ginkgo operates and plans to operate, variations in performance across competitors, and changes in laws and regulations affecting Ginkgo's business, (iii) the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations, and to identify and realize additional business opportunities, including with respect to our solutions and tools offerings, (iv) the risk of downturns in demand for products using synthetic biology, (v) the uncertainty regarding the demand for passive monitoring programs and biosecurity services, (vi) changes to the biosecurity industry, including due to advancements in technology, emerging competition and evolution in industry demands, standards and regulations, (vii) the outcome of any pending or potential legal proceedings against Ginkgo, (viii) our ability to realize the expected benefits from and the success of our Foundry platform programs and Codebase assets, (ix) our ability to successfully develop engineered cells, bioprocesses, data packages or other deliverables, (x) the product development, production or manufacturing success of our customers, (xi) our exposure to the volatility and liquidity risks inherent in holding equity interests in other operating companies and other non-cash consideration we may receive for our services, (xii) the potential negative impact on our business of our restructuring or the failure to realize the anticipated savings associated therewith and (xiii) the uncertainty regarding government budgetary priorities and funding allocated to government agencies. The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. You should carefully consider the foregoing factors and the other risks and uncertainties described in the "Risk Factors" section of Ginkgo's annual report on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on February 25, 2025 and other documents filed by Ginkgo from time to time with the SEC. These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and Ginkgo assumes no obligation and does not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Ginkgo does not give any assurance that it will achieve its expectations.

 

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