Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the intent to create and implement new biosecurity capabilities in Rwanda.
Ginkgo to collaborate with Rwandese health care institutions
The partnership’s main objective is to assist Rwanda’s public health organizations as they strive to address biosecurity issues in the area. Through Concentric by Ginkgo (“Concentric”), The company’s biosecurity and health care initiative intends to collaborate with RDB to provide these institutions with the safe data equipment they require to take advantage of automation, data processing, bioinformatics abilities, and other essential genomic sequencing technologies.
In order to provide pathogen surveillance abilities across dozens of US venues, such as airports, schools, and other gathering places, Concentric makes use of a national laboratory network. This proposed relationship with RDB is an important milestone in concentric’s global expansion as it strives to expand its biosecurity offerings. Concentric aspires to establish a sustainable worldwide biosecurity network to be ready for the next novel variant or new pathogen.
RDB, a Rwandan government entity, was founded in 2008 to expedite Rwanda’s economic growth by encouraging private sector development. The RDB will give expertise in developing skills and on-the-ground assistance for the cooperation; Ginkgo will establish partnerships with Rwandan public health agencies and private sector-led biotech efforts in Rwanda. In light of the emergence of biological threats, Concentric and RDB acknowledge the value of international cooperation and collaboration to advance global health security.
The future of biosecurity is global accelerated by the pandemic
The fate of biosecurity is international because, as COVID-19 has demonstrated, pathogens are not bound by national boundaries. We require the infrastructure to create a global weather map that tracks the transmission and evolution of contagious diseases in order to be ready for the forthcoming biological threat.
Ginkgo Bioworks General Manager, Biosecurity, Matt McKnight, said, “We deeply appreciate Rwanda’s leadership working to define a new era of biosecurity, and we are incredibly excited to use our platform to support Rwanda’s public health institutions with critical capabilities that we believe will help them face challenges ranging from this pandemic to agricultural and travel biosecurity.”
