Ginkgo Bioworks

Overview

Ginkgo Bioworks is a Boston-based company that builds autonomous lab infrastructure and offers both cloud lab services and R&D services to the life sciences industry. The company has developed a hardware and software stack designed for flexible, multi-assay autonomous labs — a deliberate architectural departure from single-workflow automation systems. Co-founders include Reshma Shetty, who serves as COO.

Reshma Shetty is a vocal advocate for the view that single-workflow automation is fundamentally insufficient for drug discovery. Drug discovery requires diverse experimental modalities that change as a program progresses; she argues the field needs flexible multi-assay architecture as the foundation for any meaningful lab-in-the-loop or physical AI scientist approach.