The partnership leverages Selecta's clinically validated ImmTor platform and Ginkgo's horizontal cell programming platform to develop next-generation viral capsids with improved transduction, enhanced tissue tropism, and reduced immunogenicity, according to the companies.

Under the terms of the collaboration, Ginkgo is eligible to earn upfront R&D fees and milestone payments, including certain milestone payments in the form of Selecta common stock. In addition, Ginkgo is eligible to earn clinical, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments of up to $200 million in cash for a specified number of products, for a potential total of up to $1.1 billion. Ginkgo is also entitled to potential royalties on sales.

In addition to its collaboration with Selecta, Ginkgo has adopted Inscripta's Onyx genome engineering platform. Ginkgo said the investment is part of its commitment to integrating cutting-edge technology into its repertoire as it aims to increase the performance and productivity of its metabolic and protein engineering workflow and grow its pipeline.

In an initial evaluation, Ginkgo reported that the Onyx platform demonstrated an order of magnitude increase in the throughput of certain genome editing capabilities for Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Escherichia coli, which led to a significant increase in strain performance as measured by the production of a target metabolite.

Additionally, with the Onyx integration, Ginkgo scientists reported in their initial evaluation that the Onyx platform delivered faster turnaround times and reduced the design-build-test-learn cycle time by at least 50%, which could enable faster product development.

Financial details of this integration were not disclosed.

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