Not too long ago, synthetic biology was fashionable.

Then, in quick succession, we saw massive stock price collapses of three unicorn synbio startups in 2021-2023: Gingko Bioworks, Zymergen, and Amyris.

What went wrong? And can synthetic-biology (aka biomanufacturing) startups be successful at all?

Biomanufacturing Basics

Biomanufacturing generally refers to the industrial-scale production of materials from simple living things. In other words, extracts produced from cultures of yeast, bacteria, fungi, algae, or other types of cells, typically grown in bioreactor vats.1

Fermented foods and beverages like beer and koji are the oldest biomanufactured goods, and they played a pioneering role in the development of industrial biomanufacturing techniques. William Sealy Gossett, the statistician behind the “Student's t distribution” and the concept of “statistical significance” in experimental design, developed his techniques as the Head Brewer of the Guinness beer company.

Many other substances are routinely biomanufactured, from [...]

---

Outline:

(00:39) Biomanufacturing Basics

(04:29) Amyris: (Energy) Math is Hard, Let's Go Shopping!

(06:48) Zymergen: Yeast Ain't Everything

(09:43) Gingko Bioworks: You May Have To, Like, Actually Sell Things

(11:35) Takeaways

---

First published:

Source:

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---

Images from the article:

Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.