The rise of RNA therapeutics and cell therapies promises to take us where we’ve never been in medicine. The growing understanding of RNA, mRNA, and circular RNA and their crucial roles in disease has led to their application in targeting previously “undruggable” targets. Meanwhile, new cell therapies are promising cures to diseases that have plagued us without mercy. Scientists now ask what can’t we do. Still, biology remains dauntingly complex.At the base of these fields is a revolution in biological engineering. One company stands out with the impressive vision of making engineering biology easier: Boston-based Ginkgo Bioworks. This past month, Ginkgo announced that it was buying three companies to boost its AI footprint in diagnostics and therapeutics. We think of burgers and perfumes, but Ginkgo’s customer base is impressively diverse. Today, we talk with Jennifer Wipf, Head of Commercial Cell Engineering at Ginkgo. Jennifer says FNA is giving drug developers “access to the cell” which is opening up a whole new approach to therapeutics. How does Ginkgo help out? What are the promises and challenges?We end with a question about Ginkgo’s new acquisitions to beef up its AI capabilities after last year's partnership with Google.“If you want to make biology easier to engineer, we need a way to answer some of these questions without doing a lot of lab work."
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