Ginkgo Bioworks leads team awarded BETO funding for algal crop protection

In Massachusetts, Ginkgo Bioworks announced that a Ginkgo-led team — including partners from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Colorado School of Mines, and Global Algae Innovations — has been awarded funding through the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO). The scope of the project will be to develop a new approach to algal crop protection, inspired by integrated pest management strategies used for terrestrial crops.

The awarded project is part of DOE’s investment in the development of clean energy solutions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. More specifically, this project is focused on improving algal biotechnology to enable increased production of affordable biofuels and bioproducts from atmospheric CO2 at large scales.