This week, the startup hub Y Combinator and the $4.8 billion company Ginkgo Bioworks unveiled a new partnership aimed at giving startups access to tools to make materials from living things. Ginkgo was Y Combinator's first biology investment and its first investment outside of traditional tech. The new deal gives startups that build with biology, otherwise known as synthetic biology startups, access to Ginkgo's manufacturing platform. In exchange, Ginkgo gets equity in the companies. Ginkgo expects them to work on applications as varied as novel materials, drugs, and meat substitutes.