Dylan George joins Ginkgo Bioworks to grow the company's global biosecurity efforts

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Apr 22, 2021, 12:01 ET

BOSTON, April 22, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ginkgo Bioworks ("Ginkgo"), the organism company, today announced Dylan George will join Concentric by Ginkgo, the company's public health and biosecurity effort, as vice president of Business Development.

George brings a wealth of leadership and biosecurity experience, including extensive service in the federal government and as vice president at In-Q-Tel. He recently contributed to COVID-19 response planning, as well as strategic support for national security and foreign policy issues for the Biden-Harris Transition Team.

"When COVID-19 slammed into the world, Ginkgo found ways to be a part of the solution," said George. "They pivoted people and expertise, and dedicated resources to help in the COVID-19 response. Impressively, they have built a massive testing capability to let kids go back to school, they helped contribute to vaccine manufacturing processes and supply chains, and now they are helping monitor for threatening variants. It was clear to me that the team at Ginkgo is mission-focused, and it is exciting to contribute to that mission, and work on innovating pandemic response capabilities."

"Global biosecurity has to be at the foundation of Ginkgo's platform, because biology doesn't respect borders," said Jason Kelly, CEO of Ginkgo Bioworks. "In an interconnected world where biology becomes easier to engineer every year, robust biosecurity becomes a necessary pillar of human society. Companies like Ginkgo need to build systems that enable communities to understand the biology around them, and respond to it. Dylan's long-term leadership and vision in biosecurity are unmatched and with him on our team, we will advance and scale that effort in partnership with public health centers worldwide. I couldn't be more excited."

At Ginkgo, Dylan George joins a robust biosecurity team, working across Concentric by Ginkgo, Ginkgo's horizontal cell engineering platform, and a rich set of partnerships with government and industry efforts to maximize the effectiveness of biosecurity interventions, and minimize the negative economic and social impacts of biosecurity threats. Other key principals on this team include Lt. General Thomas P. Bostick, the 53rd Chief of Engineers of the United States Army and Commanding General of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Dr. Renee Wegrzyn, former DARPA Program Manager in the Biological Technologies Office and vice president, Business Development, at Ginkgo, Dr. Patrick Boyle, Ginkgo's Head of Codebase, and Ryan Morhard, Ginkgo's Director of Policy and Partnership, who previously led the World Economic Forum's work on global health security and biological risks and served as Branch Chief for International Partnerships at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

"The last year has taught us that the incredible advances in biotechnology and data analysis can and should be used to prevent pandemics from even rising to the level of pandemics in the first place," said Patrick Boyle. "Dylan has long been a champion of pandemic forecasting, and I'm excited to work with him on that in the context of building Ginkgo's platform."

"With biotechnology, we have the potential to build the tools to ensure that the world never again sees a pandemic like this one," said Ryan Morhard. "Ending pandemics requires reliable partnerships, across all parts of society and the economy and around the world. Dylan brings exceptional experience in that regard, and we're thrilled to have him at Ginkgo."

"In the future, we are not going to have the luxury of knowing exactly what the next pandemic will be, or even whether the next potential crisis-level biothreat will be a plant or animal pathogen. As Ginkgo works to build the bioeconomy, we will work in parallel to create the technology to protect this emerging sector," said Renee Wegrzyn. "Dylan brings deep national security expertise to Ginkgo, and he analyzes these challenges at a systems level, helping Ginkgo to build the best solutions to biothreats so that we can better prepare for the future."

George previously worked in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), as a Senior Advisor for Biological Threat Defense. Among other efforts at OSTP, George supported the global response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. His experience operating at the federal level also includes roles in the Department of Health and Human Services within the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), as well as the Department of Defense and the National Science Foundation. Dr. George received his Ph.D. from Colorado State University and focused on quantitative analytical approaches for analyzing the persistence of clinically severe pathogens (e.g., Yersinia pestis, rabies) within wildlife populations.

"I have worked with exceptional teams in my career both in government and the private sector. It's an honor to join Ginkgo because the team is driven, innovative, and wicked smart," added George.

About Ginkgo Bioworks
Headquartered in Boston, Ginkgo Bioworks uses the most advanced technology on the planet—biology—to grow better products. The company's cell programming platform is enabling the growth of biotechnology across diverse markets, from food to fragrance to pharmaceuticals. Ginkgo is also actively supporting a number of COVID-19 response efforts, including community testing, epidemiological tracing, vaccine development and therapeutics discovery. For more information, visit www.ginkgobioworks.com.

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SOURCE Ginkgo Bioworks