Ginkgo Bioworks and Agricen Enter Collaboration to Optimize Manufacturing Processes for a Key Agricultural Soil Amendment

Rhea-AI Summary

Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA) and Agricen announced on Dec 17, 2025 the completion of an initial collaboration to develop and optimize a low-cost, efficient fermentation process for complex bacterial strains used in an Agricen soil amendment product.

The work reduced fermentation time for challenging microbes, freed Agricen to focus on pipeline development, and demonstrated Ginkgo's platform capabilities from small screening through commercial volumes of 20 L to 3,000 L.

Key Figures

Platform volume range (low) 20 liters Supported bioprocess development scale mentioned in collaboration release

Platform volume range (high) 3,000 liters Commercial-scale manufacturing capacity noted in article

Agricen operating history Over 20 years Years Agricen has been developing biological and soil amendment solutions

Market Reality Check

$8.10 Last Close

Volume Volume 1,050,766 is slightly above the 20-day average of 994,832. normal

Technical Price at 8.26 is trading below the 200-day MA of 9.97, and over 53% below the 52-week high of 17.58.

Peers on Argus

DNA was down 4.73% while close peers showed mixed, mostly smaller moves: MGTX -2.71%, SEPN -2.64%, XNCR -0.24%, ANAB -0.16%, and KROS +1.75%, suggesting a stock-specific move rather than a broad sector swing.

Historical Context

Date	Event	Sentiment	Move	Catalyst
Dec 09	Drug safety partnership	Positive	+1.7%	ARPA-H backed PREDICTS project using Datapoints platform for drug safety data.
Dec 05	Government contract win	Positive	+0.4%	Up to $47M, four-year DOE phenotyping platform contract with PNNL/EMSL.
Dec 03	ARPA-H award	Positive	+4.9%	ARPA-H EMBODY funding for vesicle platform; Ginkgo as partner on program.
Nov 06	Q3 2025 earnings	Negative	-2.5%	Revenue decline, sizable net loss, though full‑year guidance reaffirmed.
Nov 03	BARDA project award	Positive	-1.5%	BARDA-funded filovirus mAb biomanufacturing project up to $22.2M.

Pattern Detected

Recent partnership and government-contract headlines have generally led to modestly positive one-day moves, with only one notable divergence on a BARDA contract announcement.

Recent Company History

Over the last six weeks, Ginkgo Bioworks has reported multiple partnership and government-funded project wins alongside its Q3 2025 earnings. News on ARPA-H and BARDA-backed initiatives, as well as a four‑year, up to $47M phenotyping platform contract, previously produced mostly positive one‑day price reactions. The new Agricen collaboration similarly emphasizes platform capabilities in bioprocess optimization, fitting into a pattern of Ginkgo using its technology to support external partners across drug safety, phenotyping, and biomanufacturing programs.

Regulatory & Risk Context

Active S-3 Shelf Registration 2025-08-07

The company has an active S-3 shelf registration filed on 2025-08-07, with at least one usage indicated by a 424B5 prospectus supplement on 2025-09-04. This framework allows the company to issue securities under the shelf during its effective period, subject to effectiveness status and market conditions.

Market Pulse Summary

This announcement highlights Ginkgo’s role in optimizing fermentation for complex bacterial strains in an Agricen soil amendment, emphasizing faster and more efficient microbe production at scales from 20 to 3,000 liters. It fits a recent pattern of platform deployments across agriculture and therapeutics. Investors may track how such collaborations convert into revenue, monitor further use of the active S‑3 registration, and watch upcoming partnerships or government-funded projects for signals on commercial traction.

Key Terms

soil amendment technical

"complex bacterial strains used as a component in one of Agricen's soil amendment products"

A soil amendment is any material added to land to improve its physical condition or fertility—things like compost, lime, sand or specialty products that change how soil holds water, drains, or supplies nutrients. For investors, amendments matter because they influence crop yields, input costs, and regulatory or sustainability profiles for agricultural and land-management businesses, much like upgrading parts can improve a machine’s performance and efficiency.

abiotic stress medical

"help plants better tolerate abiotic stress and enhance soil biome function"

Abiotic stress is the harm plants or crops experience from non-living environmental factors such as drought, extreme temperatures, salinity, flooding or pollution. For investors, it matters because these stresses can cut yields, raise production costs, or change demand for seeds, chemicals and technologies designed to help crops cope — like a heatwave that saps a factory’s output and forces buyers to pay more or seek alternatives.

biome medical

"enhance soil biome function"

A biome is the community of living organisms (like bacteria, fungi and plants) and their surrounding environment in a specific place—for example, the organisms living in human guts, on skin, or in soil. Investors care because companies developing medicines, diagnostics, or consumer products that alter or measure these communities can affect health outcomes, regulation, and market demand; thinking of a biome as an ecosystem helps assess risk, opportunity and potential returns.

fermentation technical

"develop and optimize a low-cost, efficient fermentation process for complex bacterial strains"

Fermentation is a manufacturing process in which living microbes or their enzymes convert sugars and other feedstocks into products like proteins, enzymes, alcohols, acids, or cultured food ingredients. Investors care because it determines how a product is made, its cost, scalability, quality consistency and regulatory oversight—think of microbes as tiny factory workers whose efficiency and safety influence profit margins and approval risks.

microbes medical

"do what they are experts at – simplifying processes with challenging microbes"

Microbes are tiny living organisms—such as bacteria, viruses, fungi and single‑celled organisms—that are too small to see without a microscope and exist everywhere from soil to factories to the human body. For investors, microbes matter because they can be both tools for new drugs, vaccines and industrial processes and sources of contamination, product recalls, regulatory hurdles or liability; think of them like ingredients that can either make a recipe valuable or spoil it.

AI-generated analysis. Not financial advice.

Collaboration reduces time in fermenting complex bacterial strains, enabling continued focus on next-gen biological crop solutions.

BOSTON and PLANO, Texas, Dec. 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA, "Ginkgo"), a provider of research and development services and tools for biological product development and Agricen, a leader in the development and commercialization of novel biological and soil amendment solutions for plant nutrition and health, today announced the successful completion of their initial collaboration to develop and optimize a low-cost, efficient fermentation process for complex bacterial strains used as a component in one of Agricen's soil amendment products.

"Ginkgo's unique approach to process development and optimization brought an efficiency for developing a custom fermentation process that we didn't see with other toll producers," said Michael Totora, President and CEO of Agricen. "This is work that we would typically do in-house, but we are always looking for ways to be more operationally efficient. We saw what Ginkgo's team offered and enlisted them to do what they are experts at – simplifying processes with challenging microbes. They delivered. This gives us more time to focus on advancing solutions in our pipeline and providing novel biological crop nutrition solutions to our global partners."

Growers are increasingly adopting biological solutions to help them improve crop yield, quality and stress resistance while also maintaining the integrity and sustainability of their soil. For over 20 years, Agricen has been developing and commercializing solutions to meet those needs, including through the development of novel biological and soil amendment technologies that increase nutrient availability in the soil, improve crop uptake of essential nutrients, help plants better tolerate abiotic stress and enhance soil biome function. The new collaboration with Ginkgo enables Agricen to produce microbes in one of its soil amendment products faster and more efficiently, highlighting the value of Ginkgo's technologies in helping agriculture companies gain efficiencies at later stages of product development.  

"At Ginkgo, we understand the urgency for next-generation agricultural solutions that can support growers, consumers and the planet," Michael Miille, General Manager of Ginkgo's agriculture business unit says. "It has been a pleasure to work alongside our partners at Agricen to deliver an optimized process that allows them to continue to focus on the development of biological solutions important to crop production."

Ginkgo aims to develop and advance agricultural biological solutions across crops and geographies through platform technologies that address diverse market needs. The company's platform supports partners at various stages of bioprocess development: from media and process screening at small and intermediate scales to commercial-scale manufacturing at volumes ranging from 20 liters to 3,000 liters.      

To learn more, visit Agricen.com or Ag.ginkgo.bio/

About Ginkgo Bioworks:

Ginkgo Bioworks builds the tools that make biology easier to engineer for everyone. Ginkgo R&D Solutions delivers customizable R&D packages—such as protein engineering, nucleic acid design, and cell-free systems—giving partners a comprehensive way to accelerate innovation across therapeutics, diagnostics, & manufacturing. Ginkgo Agriculture provides R&D services for innovative companies that are developing agricultural biologicals and novel plant traits, including lead discovery, characterization and validation, product & process co-development, and small-scale toll manufacturing. Ginkgo Automation sells modular, integrated laboratory automation so scientists can spend their days planning and analyzing experiments rather than pipetting in the lab. Ginkgo Datapoints uses Ginkgo's in-house automation to generate the large lab data sets to power your AI models. Ginkgo Biosecurity is building and deploying the next-generation infrastructure and technologies that global leaders need to predict, detect, and respond to a wide variety of biological threats. For more information, visit ginkgobioworks.com and https://ag.ginkgo.bio/, read our blog, or follow us on social media channels such as X (@Ginkgo), Instagram (@GinkgoBioworks), Threads (@GinkgoBioworks), or LinkedIn.

About Agricen:

Agricen is a plant health technology company delivering biochemical-based products that sustainably enhance plant health, nutrition and performance.

Agricen helps growers meet the demands of modern agriculture by providing effective tools that increase nutrient availability and uptake, improve sustainability and optimize yield potential. We also help turf and ornamental professionals get more out of their fertilizer programs with innovative products that significantly increase fertilizer efficiency and improve plant performance and quality.

To learn more, visit Agricen.com and follow us on our LinkedIn.

AGRICEN MEDIA CONTACT:
pruzicka@agricen.com

GINKGO BIOWORKS INVESTOR CONTACT:
investors@ginkgobioworks.com

GINKGO BIOWORKS MEDIA CONTACT:
press@ginkgobioworks.com

Forward-Looking Statements of Ginkgo Bioworks

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements regarding the capabilities and potential success of the collaboration and Ginkgo's cell programming platform. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words "believe," "can," "project," "potential," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "strategy," "future," "opportunity," "plan," "may," "should," "will," "would," "will be," "will continue," "will likely result," and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this press release, including but not limited to: (i) our ability to realize near-term and long-term cost savings associated with our site consolidation plans, including the ability to terminate leases or find sub-lease tenants for unused facilities, (ii) volatility in the price of Ginkgo's securities due to a variety of factors, including changes in the competitive and highly regulated industries in which Ginkgo operates and plans to operate, variations in performance across competitors, and changes in laws and regulations affecting Ginkgo's business, (iii) the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations, and to identify and realize additional business opportunities, including with respect to our solutions and tools offerings, (iv) the risk of downturns in demand for products using synthetic biology, (v) the uncertainty regarding the demand for passive monitoring programs and biosecurity services, (vi) changes to the biosecurity industry, including due to advancements in technology, emerging competition and evolution in industry demands, standards and regulations, (vii) the outcome of any pending or potential legal proceedings against Ginkgo, (viii) our ability to realize the expected benefits from and the success of our Foundry platform programs and Codebase assets, (ix) our ability to successfully develop engineered cells, bioprocesses, data packages or other deliverables, (x) the product development, production or manufacturing success of our customers, (xi) our exposure to the volatility and liquidity risks inherent in holding equity interests in other operating companies and other non-cash consideration we may receive for our services, (xii) the potential negative impact on our business of our restructuring or the failure to realize the anticipated savings associated therewith and (xiii) the uncertainty regarding government budgetary priorities and funding allocated to government agencies. The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. You should carefully consider the foregoing factors and the other risks and uncertainties described in the "Risk Factors" section of Ginkgo's annual report on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on February 25, 2025, and other documents filed by Ginkgo from time to time with the SEC. These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and Ginkgo assumes no obligation and does not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Ginkgo does not give any assurance that it will achieve its expectations.

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SOURCE Ginkgo Bioworks

FAQ

What did Ginkgo Bioworks and Agricen announce on December 17, 2025 regarding fermentation?

They completed an initial collaboration to develop an optimized, low-cost fermentation process for complex bacterial strains used in an Agricen soil amendment product.

How does the Ginkgo-Agricen collaboration affect Agricen's production timeline for the soil amendment?

The collaboration reduced fermentation time and enabled Agricen to produce microbes for the product faster and more efficiently.

What fermentation scales does Ginkgo's platform support for agricultural partners like Agricen (Ginkgo ticker DNA)?

Ginkgo's platform supports stages from media and process screening to commercial manufacturing at volumes ranging from 20 liters to 3,000 liters.

What operational benefit did Agricen cite from using Ginkgo's process development services?

Agricen said outsourcing the custom fermentation process increased operational efficiency and freed internal resources to focus on advancing its pipeline.

Will the collaboration with Ginkgo change Agricen's product formulation or market focus immediately?

The announcement describes process optimization and faster production for an existing soil amendment component; it does not state any immediate changes to product formulation or market focus.

Where can investors find more information about Ginkgo's agriculture capabilities and Agricen's products?

The companies direct interested parties to Agricen.com and Ag.ginkgo.bio for additional information.