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From 2012e.igem.org

Success Stories

Despite the challenges and obstacles in the synthetic biology industry, there have been successful startups with distinct business strategies.

Amyris Biotechnologies^{[http://www.amyris.com]}

Despite the challenges and obstacles in the synthetic biology industry, there are successful stories of startups. Amyris’ success lies in its ability to apply its methodology from developing artemisinin to producing biofuels. Its great innovation is the use of yeast as a chassis, modifying the platform with a variety of genetic material and essentially in theory, produce anything with addition of simple sugar. Amyris Biotechnologies develops renewable fuels to reduce GHG emissions by 80%. They also develop semi-synthetic artemisinin, a key ingredient in malaria treatments, and reduce the need for the current seasonal supply. Amyris utilizes an industrial synthetic biology platform, composed of strain engineering, process development and scale-up, and chemical finishing. Amyris developed a computer program, Thumper, which essentially allows scientists to piece together the genes of yeast, rearrange its genetic makeup, and make new strains. Over 400,000 new strains are screened each week. The yeast that converts sugar into target molecules such as farnesene is subjected to conditions that stimulate a commercial production environment. The idea is that cells could be treated like small factories. Unfortunately, Amyris failed to meet its goals of 50 million liters. Farnesene was sold at a price of $7.80, a price expensive for the fuel market. More importantly in Amyris’ race to satisfy Wall Street’s expectations, the company failed to be financially successful, as the price of the product did not even cover the production cost. Amyris continues to operate, restructuring their organization. Amyris’ story is about a promising, innovative startup, but also a lesson on the importance of management. It is this type of management style that a community focused corporation would lend and bolster the success of a company.

Gingko Bioworks^{[http://ginkgobioworks.com]}

Gingo Bioworks sells engineered organisms involved in electrofuels and pharmaceuticals. Gingo Bioworks use CAE (Computer-Aided Engineering) to produce organisms specifically for the project. This frees up engineers to focus on the creative aspects of engineering while quality and batch creation is completely automated. The laboratory utilizes robotic automation to significantly reduce error rates and increases turn-around time for building and testing new organisms. Genetic parts and host strains are reusable from past projects to ensure synthetic biology components will operate predictably. There are several synthetic biology companies, but many have ceased operations such as Codon Devices, which synthesized DNA. Ginkgo’s success may lie in its ability to providing a solution while managing its operations effectively. Reshman Shetty, a DNA hacker at Bioworks, had a problem with her lab smelling like a latrine. She solved the problem by engineering a strain of E. coli that smelled minty. "The challenge now is not to synthesize genes; there are a few companies that do that. It's to build pathways that can make specific chemicals, such as fuels," Reshman Shetty says^{[http://m.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/23567/]}. It is this different perspective in providing a solution, coupled with effective management, has most likely attributed to their success. Ginkgo Bioworks is being managed nimble. Ginkgo Bioworks is funded by $150,000 loan from Lifetech Boston and seed money from ITI Life Sciences, designed to strengthen the life sciences industry. Ginkgo Bioworks’ lab space is populated with PCR machines mostly bought on eBay or from biotech businesses that have gone out of business.