Ginkgo Bioworks, a Boston-based biotech working on cell programming and biosecurity, announced this week that it has partnered with Boehringer Ingelheim to work on breakthrough therapies for hard-to-treat diseases.

The two will leverage the Ginkgo metagenomic sequence database, which contains a wealth of structurally unique bioactive molecules, to potentially identify novel treatment targets. 

Under the terms of the agreement, Boehringer Ingelheim will pay Ginkgo an undisclosed amount for upfront research fees. Ginkgo would then be eligible for success-based research and development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments up to $406 million total, as well as potential future royalty payments. 

Ginkgo Bioworks, established in 2008, was founded by MIT researchers with a mission to “make biology easier to engineer.” In 2022, the company made its largest acquisition yet, buying American biotech Zymergen for $300 million.