BOSTON, Dec. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ginkgo Bioworks
(NYSE: DNA) today confirmed that it has collected, identified, and
sequenced a pooled sample containing the Omicron variant from
passengers on flights originating from South Africa and the United Kingdom and arriving at Newark International Airport on the 30th of
November and the 1st of December. These samples were collected in
partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) and XpresSpa Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: XSPA) in the course of
servicing their joint air travel COVID-19 monitoring program. The
program is implemented through Ginkgo's public health and
biosecurity initiative, Concentric by Ginkgo and XpresSpa Group's
XpresCheck™ subsidiary.
This joint biosecurity effort leverages Concentric's large scale
group testing infrastructure and XpresCheck's in-airport testing
platform to monitor travelers for COVID-19 and its variants. The
goal of this program is to create a system that detects and
provides information on the virus. Currently, the program is in
four large airports: JFK International Airport (JFK), Newark
Liberty International Airport (EWR), San
Francisco International Airport (SFO), and
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), which was
added during a recent expansion of the already-operational
program.
Ginkgo launched Concentric last year as a core part of its
response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, Concentric has built
a turnkey solution for states, cities, and school districts to make
large-scale asymptomatic testing available to communities seeking
data to help identify and mitigate the spread of COVID-19. This
data, effectively used, can be a powerful tool in limiting
transmission chains.
In the CDC-sponsored program, Concentric by Ginkgo is also
performing viral sequencing on positive test samples. The goal is
to quickly alert public health authorities of specific concerning
changes with the virus. During this process, Concentric by Ginkgo
confirmed the presence of the new Omicron variant. "The ability to
remain flexible in our sequencing approach - especially in the
early days of the emergence of a new variant - is a critical
capability that can help us keep pace with the virus," said Dr.
Birgitte Simen, who leads Ginkgo's
sequencing team.
"This is why proactive biosurveillance is important - to build a
robust weather map of what is entering countries so our public
health leaders can make rapid and targeted intervention decisions
and develop even more nimble response capabilities," said
Matt McKnight, Chief Commercial
Officer at Ginkgo Bioworks, who is leading Ginkgo's public health
and biosecurity efforts. "Just imagine, if in March of 2020,
airline passengers were getting tested at a massive scale. We would
have had the information we needed to intervene and help mitigate
outbreaks, perhaps minimizing costly shutdowns. We are working to
build this capability now. Ginkgo cares deeply about how we use our
platform, and we'll continue to apply it towards scaled
biosurveillance tools for the fight against COVID-19 and future
pandemic potential threats."
Today, Concentric by Ginkgo's integrated platform leverages a
lab network that consists of dozens of partner labs to provide
testing in 18 states (including the District of Columbia), primarily in K-12
schools, helping keep schools open and kids in class. Concentric's
network has enough contracted and validated labs to serve tens of
millions of individuals with pooled tests every week and Concentric
stands ready to invest to expand this partner capacity.
"We are gratified that the biosurveillance program we developed
in collaboration with the CDC and our partners at Ginkgo Bioworks
is performing so effectively," said Doug
Satzman, Chief Executive Officer of XpresSpa Group. "This
platform provides passive monitoring at scale that can also be
leveraged further across additional U.S. airports."
"The detection of the Omicron variant among arriving
travelers, and the subsequent rapid public health
interventions that followed, demonstrate the effectiveness of
this collaborative airport-based surveillance testing program,"
said Dr. Martin Cetron, the Director
for the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine (DGMQ) at the
CDC. "Scaling up testing at airports is critical not only to
protect communities across the country from this new variant, but
also to have the infrastructure in place to respond to novel
pathogens that may emerge in the future."
Ginkgo's overall COVID-19 response and biosecurity efforts
encompass a variety of initiatives, including programs to support
Moderna with process optimization for key raw materials used in the
manufacturing of its mRNA vaccines–among them mRNA-1273, Moderna's
vaccine candidate against COVID-19–as well as a collaboration with
Aldevron which yielded a manufacturing breakthrough for vaccinia
capping enzyme used for manufacturing of mRNA vaccines. Other
examples of large-scale genomic pathogen surveillance include a
program in collaboration with Biobot and the U.S. Department for
Health and Human Services (HHS) on wastewater sequencing.
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.
About XpresSpa Group, Inc.
XpresSpa Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: XSPA) is a leading global health
and wellness holding company operating three distinct brands:
Treat™, XpresCheck™, and XpresSpa™. Treat is a travel health and
wellness brand that will be providing on-demand access to
healthcare through technology and personalized services. XpresCheck
is a leading on-site airport provider of COVID-19 screening and
testing with 14 locations in 12 domestic airports. XpresSpa is a
leading airport retailer of spa services and related health and
wellness products, with 43 locations in 21 airports globally.
To learn more about XpresSpa Group, visit:
www.XpresSpaGroup.com.
To learn more about Treat, visit: www.Treat.com.
To learn more about XpresCheck, visit: www.XpresCheck.com.
To learn more about XpresSpa, visit www.XpresSpa.com.
Twitter: @Treat_Care and Instagram: @treat_care
Twitter: @xprescheck and Instagram: @realxprescheck
Twitter: @XpresSpa and Instagram: @XpresSpa
Ginkgo Bioworks Contacts:
Media:
press@ginkgobioworks.com
Investor Relations:
investors@ginkgobioworks.com
XpresSpa Group Contacts:
Media:
Julie Ferguson
Julie@jfprmedia.com
(312) 385-0098
Investor Relations:
ICR
Raphael Gross
ir@xpresspagroup.com
(203) 682-8253
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements
within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including
statements regarding the potential of Ginkgo's biosecurity
capabilities and partnership with XpresSpa Group, Inc. These
forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words
"believe," "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 document, including but not
limited to: (i) the effect of the 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
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, and (vi) the risk of downturns in
demand for products using synthetic biology. 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 November 15, 2021 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.
View original content to download
multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/concentric-by-ginkgo-confirms-detection-of-omicron-variant-through-covid-19-air-travel-biosecurity-collaboration-with-cdc-and-xprescheck-301438589.html
SOURCE Ginkgo Bioworks