NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Ginkgo Bioworks today announced it has acquired several assets from Warp Drive Bio, a subsidiary of Revolution Medicines, including its genome mining platform.
Warp Drive's bioinformatics technology sifts through microbial genome databases to uncover potential antibiotics. Its genomic database includes more than 135,000 bacterial strains.
Under the terms of the deal, Ginkgo will obtain Warp Drive's genomic sequence collection and bioinformatics software. Warp Drive's genome mining team will also move to Ginkgo's headquarters in Boston.
Redwood City, California-based Revolution Medicines will retain all rights to Warp Drive's non-genome mining programs, including inhibitors of multiple RAS mutants.
Ginkgo did not disclose financial or other terms.
"Following our acquisition of Warp Drive Bio, we have worked diligently to divest the company's genome mining technology, antibiotic research portfolio, and related personnel to a team best positioned to maximize the value of those assets – we have found that partner in Ginkgo Bioworks," Revolution Medicines President and CEO Mark Goldsmith said in a statement.
Ginkgo said in a statement that the genome mining platform "will supplement Ginkgo's state-of-the-art sequencing capabilities, extensive biological codebase, bioinformatics, and machine-learning tools for gene discovery and strain engineering expertise for active pharmaceutical ingredient production."
CEO and Cofounder Jason Kelly added that "[b]ringing Warp Drive Bio's deep expertise in genomics-based natural products discovery to Ginkgo's codebase is the key to unlocking new products, like novel antibiotics that can help combat the rise of antibiotic-resistant diseases."
Warp Drive launched in 2012 with $125 million in financing and counted Harvard Professors Gregory Verdine and George Church as cofounders. Revolution Medicines acquired Warp Drive in 2018.