aid: synthetic-genomics
name: Viridos
description: >-
  Viridos, founded in 2005 as Synthetic Genomics, Inc. by J. Craig Venter and Hamilton Smith and
  renamed Viridos in September 2021, was a La Jolla, California synthetic-biology company that
  engineered microalgae genomes to produce low-carbon-intensity biofuels, running its algal biofuel
  program as a long-term research partnership with ExxonMobil. The company never published an API,
  a developer portal, or any machine-readable contract; its only public developer surface was a
  GitHub organization holding two first-party open-source projects - the AGPL-licensed sgidspace
  deep-learning protein annotation library and a sensor calibration app - alongside seven forks of
  third-party tools. Viridos filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the District of Delaware on
  2025-04-14, sold substantially all of its algae biofuel technology to Breakthrough Energy
  Ventures II, L.P., and the case was dismissed on 2025-11-26. Its website has served no content
  since roughly October 2025.
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/synthetic-genomics/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
x-type: company
x-source: harvest:secondary-market
x-tier: stub
x-tier-reason: harvest
specificationVersion: '0.20'
x-status: defunct
x-status-detail: Founded 2005 as Synthetic Genomics, renamed Viridos in September 2021, and
  wound down; viridos.com has DNS but no serving origin. No Website registered on purpose.
created: '2026-08-29'
modified: '2026-08-29'
tags:
- Company
- Synthetic Biology
- Biotechnology
- Genomics
- Biofuels
- Algae
- Climate Tech
- Life Sciences
- Open-Source
- Defunct
tags_raw:
- Company
- Synthetic Biology
- Biotechnology
- Genomics
- Biofuels
- Algae
- Climate Tech
- Life Sciences
- Open Source
- Defunct
apis: []
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com
- FN: APIs.json
  email: info@apis.io
common:
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/syntheticgenomics
- type: Packages
  url: packages/synthetic-genomics-packages.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/synthetic-genomics-domain-security.yml
- type: LLMsTxt
  url: llms/synthetic-genomics-llms.txt
- type: Plans
  url: plans/synthetic-genomics-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/synthetic-genomics-rate-limits.yml
- type: Wikipedia
  url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viridos_(company)
- type: SecondaryMarketListing
  url: https://forgeglobal.com/synthetic-genomics_stock/
x-notes:
  website-pointer-removed: >-
    The stub carried type Website pointing at https://forgeglobal.com/synthetic-genomics_stock/.
    Forge Global is a secondary-market trading venue, not Viridos, so that URL is not the company's
    web presence and has been retyped as SecondaryMarketListing (roadmap#56). No Website pointer is
    emitted in its place: the company's own domain, viridos.com, returns "403 | Access blocked" on
    every path from a SiteGround default vhost behind a certificate that does not cover the domain.
  legacy-domain-warning: >-
    syntheticgenomics.com returns HTTP 200 but is NOT this company. The legacy domain was dropped
    and now hosts a Canadian online-casino affiliate site on Cloudflare. It must never be wired as
    a Website or Blog pointer for this profile.
  no-wellknown-pointer: >-
    well-known/synthetic-genomics-well-known.yml records the probe of 20 /.well-known and
    contract-discovery paths across viridos.com and dspace.bio. Every one returned 403, so no
    WellKnown or SecurityTxt pointer is emitted - the file documents an absence, not a surface.
  not-sgi-dna: >-
    SGI-DNA, the DNA synthesis instrument business separated from Synthetic Genomics (later Codex
    DNA / Telesis Bio), is a different company. Do not attribute its products or APIs here.
x-enrichment:
  date: '2026-08-29'
  status: minimal
  artifacts_added: 6
  pass: local-v1
x-coverage:
  state: none
  reason: defunct
  detail: >-
    Viridos sold substantially all of its algae biofuel technology in Chapter 11 and had its case
    dismissed on 2025-11-26; viridos.com now returns a 21-byte "403 | Access blocked" page from a
    SiteGround default vhost on every path, behind a certificate issued for
    giowm1252.siteground.biz, and the legacy syntheticgenomics.com domain was dropped and is now a
    Canadian online-casino affiliate site.
  evidence:
  - url: https://viridos.com/
    status: 403
  - url: https://viridos.com/openapi.json
    status: 403
  - url: https://viridos.com/.well-known/api-catalog
    status: 403
  - url: https://dspace.bio/
    status: 403
  - url: https://github.com/syntheticgenomics
    status: 200
  - url: https://cases.stretto.com/viridos/
    status: 200
  checked: '2026-08-29'