STAT+: Ginkgo Bioworks bets on protein AI model, and data generation to turn flailing company around

Amid layoffs and a disintegrating share price, former investor darling Ginkgo Bioworks is trying out a new tack to find customers.

The biotech this week announced a new artificial intelligence model for use in biological research, as well as a data service academic researchers and companies can use to develop their own models. The announcement comes as a growing number of biotechs, big tech companies, and academics apply neural networks and machine learning to biology, promising that the same basic technology that powers ChatGPT can also help design new therapies and speed the pace of fundamental research.

Ginkgo executives say the new efforts provide an opportunity where it can clearly compete. But experts and analysts aren’t so sure. Ginkgo faces competition for both of the new services it’s now offering and it’s not clear how much — if any — advantage the struggling company offers.

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