The Pandemic Response Lab is partnering with Ginkgo Bioworks to provide low-cost COVID-19 “pooled testing” services and variant tracking to schools across the country.

Low-cost school 'joint testing' will be key tool for kids to return to school

PRL genome sequencing capabilities will enable schools to track variants and influence community response

BROOKLYN, NY – April 14, 2021 – Pandemic Response Laboratory (PRL) – the leading laboratory capable of concurrent “pool testing” for COVID-19 surveillance in schools, variant tracking, and individual testing – today announced its partnership with Concentric Ginkgo is Ginkgo Bioworks' public health and biosecurity work aims to provide COVID-19 surveillance "pool testing" to schools across the country. As children return to in-person learning, low-cost, joint school testing will be critical. Under the partnership, Ginkgo Bioworks will provide end-to-end testing services in schools, with schools sending samples to PRL, operated by Opentrons Labworks Inc., where PRL will perform back-end lab work, including testing for COVID-19 and testing positive for COVID-19. Pool results found in genome sequencing of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The Biden administration recently announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will invest $10 billion from the American Rescue Plan to ramp up testing and help schools reopen, including $2.25 billion to expand testing for underserved populations.

"Rapid, affordable pool testing and variant tracking are what is needed to reopen U.S. schools equitably and efficiently," said Jonathan Brennan-Badal, CEO of Opentrons Labworks Inc. "By working with Working with partners like Ginkgo Bioworks, we can expand our reach and make these services available to more students and educators across the country."

“We are pleased to partner with Opentrons and Epidemic Response Laboratories, whose testing centers provide strategically important capabilities for pool testing,” said Jason Kelly, CEO and co-founder of Ginkgo Bioworks. “The United States has the well-functioning labs, government support and expertise to ensure every student can get tested every week.”

Pooled testing is a cost-effective tool that allows schools to broadly test students, teachers and support staff and quickly determine where COVID-19 may be present. PRL’s SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing can also tell schools whether dangerous COVID-19 variants are present, providing critical information for developing community responses.

PRL recently announced that it has launched a number of national COVID-19 testing centers to help children return to class. These centers are located in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, California. Concentric by Ginkgo currently provides testing services to hundreds of schools across the country.

More information about the Epidemic Response Laboratory

At each COVID-19 testing center, PRL works with school testing coordinators and leading health diagnostics companies, including Ginkgo Bioworks, to collect and pool samples from schools. These samples are then sent to the PRL for laboratory school surveillance pool testing and variant tracking services.

PRL leverages Opentrons' advanced robotics technology to provide fast, accurate COVID-19 testing at low cost to government agencies, hospitals, businesses and schools. PRL also conducts large-scale viral genome sequencing to track COVID-19 variants and identify potentially dangerous new mutations.

The tests for PRL are:

— Highly accurate: 25% more sensitive than industry benchmark PCR tests.

— Fast: 99% of PCR results are available in 24 hours or less, compared to the industry average of 48 to 72 hours.

— Affordable: PRL offers a range of batch-based testing solutions to its partners, including $25 per group test for up to 25 students, or just $1 per child — a cost that’s 50 percent less than the national average.

— Proven Technology: Since October 2020, PRL has processed more than 2.6 million tests for New Yorkers and currently tests 125,000 to 250,000 students and educators each month.

Opentrons opened the first PRL in New York last fall in partnership with the City of New York and has since been providing COVID-19 testing and variant detection to the city, area hospitals and other clients.

In February 2021, New York PRL identified the first case of B1.351, the South African variant of COVID-19, in a New York State resident. The lab has also been tracking the spread of the UK variant and other mutations and providing real-time alerts to health authorities.

PRL performs 30,000 to 50,000 PCR tests per day at its New York City laboratory, and its capacity has increased to more than 500,000 tests per day as more labs are opened across the country.

In addition to launching new testing centers in New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, Opentrons is exploring opening labs in other communities across the country.

Opentrons can open PRLs in the United States and most of the world within 30-45 days. The company focuses on manufacturing innovative robotic automation solutions for the healthcare sector. Its products are used in more than 3,000 laboratories in more than 40 countries.