💡Synthetic Biology company, Amyris ($AMRS), entered into a collaboration agreement with cellular development company Berkeley Lights to provide Amyris with access to a valuable platform within Berkeley Light’s technology suite called the Beacon. [Press Release]

A Beacon of hope: Beacon is an automated platform that would allow Amyris to increase the test volume of engineered strains faster by an estimated potential 10x relative to their current timeline.

Back to reality: The Beacon platform still needs to prove it can work for Amyris. I asked an Amyris spokesperson if Beacon will enable them to engineer “host” cells like yeast faster and cheaper. His response:

“Once the technology platform has been successfully demonstrated for our purposes, it will allow us to test the engineered strains faster, which speeds the engineering cycle.”

Advancements

Cell Based seafood company, Wild Type, presented cell cultured Coho Salmon as part of an exclusive dinner at Olympia Oyster Bar in Portland Oregon.

🍣First cell based sushi! The menu featured a variety of salmon preparations including ceviche, tartare and sushi – a spicy salmon roll – which was a hit amongst diners. http://cellbased.link/z9u

Investments

🧫Leading synthetic biology company Ginkgo Bioworks made an $80 million equity investment in Synlogic, Inc. ($SYBX). Synlogic is a clinical-stage company engineering living cells to develop a novel class of microbial based medicines. Through the partnership, SYBX will use Ginkgo’s “cell programming platform for building and testing thousands of microbial strains to accelerate progression of early preclinical leads to drug candidates optimized for further clinical development.” http://cellbased.link/vmi

Why We Care: Although not a directly food related development, Synlogic is one of the first companies to engineer microbes to develop “living” medicines — these medicines will ultimately impact the microbiome — our bodies microbial defense system that is largely influenced by the foods we eat.