Imagine a future designed with biology.
What if you could grow anything?
Biology has been innovating since life on Earth began. Synthetic biology is a revolution 3.5 billion years in the making.
Resurrecting the Sublime
Could we ever again smell flowers driven to extinction by humans?
A new cutting-edge scientific and creative work allows us to once again experience the scent of an extinct flower blooming on a forested volcanic slope.
Learn more at Resurrecting the Sublime
What if you could smell an extinct flower?
Last Resort
Can biotech interventions prevent the mass extinction of coral reefs?
“Having engineered ourselves and our ecosystems into a dire situation, can we engineer our way out of it again?” Britt Wray analyzes the potential of a partnership between synthetic and conservation biologists to save the world’s corals.
Read the Story on Grow
What if coral reefs could be revived?
Motif
Unleashing the promise of plant based foods
Motif is reinventing the way science is applied to make plant-based foods better tasting, more nutritious, and more sustainable.
Read Motif’s case study
What if more of our food was harm-free?
Synlogic
The era of living medicines
Together with Synlogic, Ginkgo Bioworks is ushering in a new paradigm for therapeutics, where bacteria aren’t just making the medicine, they are the medicine.
Read Synlogic's case study
What if bacteria could treat diseases in your gut?
The Ugly Truth
What happens when the government enforces beauty standards?
“Beauty is dangerous because it trades in power, and power yields nothing without demand.” Arabelle Sicardi breaks down the troubling legacy of "ugly laws" in the United States.
Read the Story at Grow
What if the world was accessible to everyone?
Allonnia
Waste is a failure of imagination
By bringing a new level of focus to nature’s potential, Allonnia plans to optimize, eradicate, and repurpose waste for a waste free, pollution free world.
Learn more at Allonnia
What if all of our waste was reusable?
Intelligent Designs
The work of art in the age of synthetic reproduction
"If the life sciences can be art, and every human being is an artist, then shouldn’t everyone have the right to practice life?" Victoria Campbell examines the intersection of art, biology, and society, and implores bioartists to engage the relationship between political aesthetics and the development of culture.
Read the Story at Grow
What if living art could shape the future?
What if this is just the beginning?
Biology runs on code in the form of DNA. It’s A, T, G, and C rather than 0 and 1. We can read and write with DNA to program cells. This allows synthetic biologists to reimagine the possibilities of living things, from bacteria that fight cancer to rewilding whole ecosystems. We’ve created this site to highlight stories about cutting-edge synthetic biology that’s making the world more open, equitable, and sustainable.
At Ginkgo Bioworks, we program cells to make everything from food to materials to therapeutics. You can read more of what we’re thinking about at Grow, our magazine about synthetic biology. And if you’re passionate about engineering biology, we hope you’ll join us! What would you grow if you really could grow anything?