Lesaffre buys Altar

French fermentation and microorganisms giant Lesaffre has acquired its compatriot Altar from Ginkgo Bioworks. The company said that Altar, a 2017 start-up specialising in adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE), will complement its existing know-how and technologies, and boost its innovation capabilities. Ginkgo will retain access to Altar’s technology.

Altar is based at Genopole near Paris, the first French cluster dedicated to biotechnology. It employs 14, who will be integrated within Lesaffre Institute of Science & Technology, Lesaffre’s RD&I department. In recent years, it has developed a technology for continuous, uninterrupted cultivation of microorganism cultures under controlled conditions to select strains with specific properties for as long as necessary.