Concentric by Ginkgo crosses 10 million samples tested and expands testing and sequencing capabilities to detect monkeypox and other pathogens, as part of scaling its global biosecurity infrastructure

News provided by

Jun 24, 2022, 07:00 ET

Concentric has sequenced over 35,000 viral genomes to date and is now piloting new modalities for pathogen monitoring

BOSTON, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA), the leading horizontal platform for cell programming, today announced plans to further scale and expand its pathogen monitoring programs through its biosecurity and public health initiative, Concentric by Ginkgo. Concentric's next-generation platform—launched in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic—helps to provide communities and public health leaders with a "weather map" of biological data, giving them the information they need to prepare for biological threats. Concentric is expanding its offerings to monitor for a variety of infectious diseases in addition to SARS-CoV-2, as well as introducing services across new modalities for passive monitoring.

Concentric is committed to working with its existing national network of laboratory partners to perform rapid test development and sample screening to be ready for future biological threats—whether the threat is a new COVID-19 variant, an unexpected outbreak of a known pathogen like monkeypox, or something never seen before. Concentric is expanding its pathogen detection and sequencing capabilities to include novel assays for pathogens like monkeypox, along with multiplex assays that can assess multiple pathogen targets at once. Working with its national network of laboratory partners and associated technical capabilities, Concentric has built the flexibility to pivot quickly to respond to a plethora of biological threats as they arise.

Concentric empowers communities and public health officials across the globe with a range of turnkey solutions for COVID-19 monitoring. Concentric has tested over 10 million samples to date and sequenced more than 35,000 viral genomes. Working with public health leaders at the federal, state, and local levels, Concentric has enabled COVID-19 testing for thousands of schools, airports, and community organizations across the country.

Concentric's sequencing capabilities provide further targeted insight into viral variants to facilitate tailored public health responses. Through its traveler-based SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance program in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and XpresCheck®, Concentric was the first in the nation to identify Omicron sublineages BA.2 and BA.3. Concentric will continue to scale up its sequencing capacity nationwide.

Concentric is working to build up next-generation biosecurity, bio-resilience, and public health infrastructure. The company is currently piloting new offerings to passively monitor air and wastewater to enable early warning for the pathogens circulating in a community. Recognizing that biosecurity must be global, Concentric is collaborating internationally to develop global pathogen monitoring capabilities with partners like Africa CDC, mRNA Victoria, and First Serv.

"Monkeypox won't be the last unexpected pathogen that impacts our health and security in the coming years, and we need to be prepared for anything," said Matt McKnight, General Manager for Biosecurity at Ginkgo Bioworks. "Building infrastructure like testing, passive monitoring, and sequencing on a global scale is the key to developing a biosecurity 'weather map' through which we can monitor and assess emerging threats. The idea behind many of Concentric's offerings is to get ahead of new variants and outbreaks before they spread. Technologies for public health have been ignored for too long; we are proud to be building an integrated service and data platform to empower our public health and global health leadership with the capabilities they need to make timely and targeted interventions."

About Ginkgo Bioworks
Ginkgo is building a platform to enable customers to program cells as easily as we can program computers. The company's platform is enabling biotechnology applications across diverse markets, from food and agriculture to industrial chemicals to pharmaceuticals. Ginkgo has also actively supported a number of COVID-19 response efforts, including K-12 pooled testing, vaccine manufacturing optimization, and therapeutics discovery. For more information, visit www.ginkgobioworks.com.

Forward-Looking Statements of Ginkgo Bioworks
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements regarding the potential success of Ginkgo's biosecurity platform. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words "believe," "can," "project," "potential," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "strategy," "future," "opportunity," "plan," "may," "should," "will," "would," "will be," "will continue," "will likely result," and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this press release, including but not limited to: (i) the effect of Ginkgo's business combination with Soaring Eagle Acquisition Corp. ("Soaring Eagle") on Ginkgo's business relationships, performance, and business generally, (ii) risks that the business combination disrupts current plans of Ginkgo and potential difficulties in Ginkgo's employee retention, (iii) the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against Ginkgo related to its business combination with Soaring Eagle, (iv) volatility in the price of Ginkgo's securities now that it is a public company due to a variety of factors, including changes in the competitive and highly regulated industries in which Ginkgo operates and plans to operate, variations in performance across competitors, changes in laws and regulations affecting Ginkgo's business and changes in the combined capital structure, (v) the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations after the completion of the business combination, and identify and realize additional opportunities, (vi) the risk of downturns in demand for products using synthetic biology, (vii) the unpredictability of the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic and the demand for COVID-19 testing and the commercial viability of our COVID-19 testing business, and (viii) changes to the biosecurity industry, including due to advancements in technology, emerging competition and evolution in industry demands, standards and regulations. The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. You should carefully consider the foregoing factors and the other risks and uncertainties described in the "Risk Factors" section of Ginkgo's quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on May 16, 2022 and other documents filed by Ginkgo from time to time with the SEC. These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and Ginkgo assumes no obligation and does not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Ginkgo does not give any assurance that it will achieve its expectations.

GINKGO BIOWORKS INVESTOR CONTACT:
[email protected]

GINKGO BIOWORKS MEDIA CONTACT:
[email protected]

SOURCE Ginkgo Bioworks