Jason Kelly co-founded Ginkgo Bioworks in 2008 straight out of his MIT bioengineering PhD. He bootstrapped the company for six years before joining Y Combinator in 2014. He chaired the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotech and is a leading voice on autonomous labs, AI for science, and the future of biomanufacturing.
no scored calls yet — needs a stated position or a categorical verdict, with a matured window vs SPY
Ginkgo is focusing on the 'back end' of biology — making physical experimentation cheaper and faster via autonomous robotic labs — and now sells both the hardware (reconfigurable automation carts) and a cloud lab service, targeting pharma, national labs, and eventually individual scientists.
OpenAI's reasoning models can successfully design and iterate experimental workflows in a robotic lab, achieving a 40% improvement over the state-of-the-art in cell-free protein synthesis after just six rounds of automated experimentation.
Isomorphic Labs, with Alphabet/DeepMind's deep pockets and vertical integration, is the most credible candidate to validate AI-driven drug discovery through clinical candidates, overcoming the asymmetric information problem in biotech investing.