Custom Crafted Organisms, the Robotic Cloud Laboratory and DARPA

Amongst our portfolio is robotic cloud laboratory platform Transcriptic. Alongside Ginkgo Bioworks, an organism company that designs custom microbes for customers, they were recently awarded a joint $9.5 M contract as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Synergistic Discovery and Design Program (SD2). The Synergistic Discovery and Design (SD2) program aims to develop data-driven methods to accelerate scientific discovery and robust design in domains that lack complete models. Ginkgo and Transcriptic will use machine learning, closed loop biology, and automated execution of protocols toward the goal of advancing biological experimentation and accelerating iterative testing for synthetic biology.

We talked to Transcriptic’s Ben Miles about the recent news. Ben is a chemical biologist and product manager who has been working with Transcriptic since 2016. Prior to Transcriptic, Ben worked in growth for the cloud-based electronic medical record company, Dentally, based in London, UK. Ben received a Ph.D and Master of Research in chemical biology from Imperial College London and also holds a B.Sc in Nanotechnology from the University of Leeds.

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Check out this walkthrough of the Transcriptic Cloud Lab and watch their introductory video.