Concentric by Ginkgo, the biosecurity and public health unit of Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA), which is building the leading platform for cell programming and biosecurity, today announced that it has entered into a Co-Marketing Agreement with Illumina, Inc. (Nasdaq: ILMN), a global leader in DNA sequencing and array-based technologies, to partner on expanding biosecurity capabilities globally.
Concentric is building a global pathogen monitoring network—a “bioradar” system —in countries around the world to detect, characterize, and rapidly respond to biological threats and help drive informed decision-making in support of global health objectives. With over a dozen countries actively scoping and hosting biosecurity programs with Concentric’s platform of integrated services, the bioradar network can serve to bolster national security and early warning capabilities for countries. Illumina is a global leader in DNA sequencing and array-based technologies, serving customers in the research, clinical, and applied markets. Illumina offers a range of leading next-generation sequencing instruments, consumables, and software to understand pathogens in ways not previously possible. These solutions can be leveraged to interrogate many different types of specimens, to enable stakeholders with a full understanding of circulating threats.
Under the agreement, the partners aim to demonstrate the use of Illumina products with Concentric’s bioradar, to accelerate the expansion of the pathogen monitoring network in a way that empowers countries, as well as increase the scale and scope of pathogen genomic surveillance globally. Concentric and Illumina will work together to market their solutions, with the aim to enhance early warning of emerging and novel pathogens and fill gaps in global biosurveillance infrastructure.
“Without sustained investments in global early detection, we remain deeply vulnerable to the next novel pathogen threat. Through this relationship with Illumina, Concentric aims to accelerate deployment of our early warning and bioradar programs for governments worldwide as they seek to modernize defenses against biological threats,” said Matt McKnight, General Manager for Biosecurity at Ginkgo Bioworks. “Sustained genomic monitoring capacity is urgently needed to drive risk identification and collective response ahead of potential pandemics and emerging biothreats.”
The shared goal is to help build local capacity for biosurveillance to empower countries rather than having to outsource biosecurity to unreliable third parties. Together, Concentric and Illumina are working to help ensure that nations worldwide are equipped and empowered, locally and sustainably.
“We now have the sequencing solutions available to ask valuable and complex questions of samples, to really understand the nature of circulating pathogens with a holistic, comprehensive approach,” said Luke Hickey, Vice President of Marketing at Illumina. “Illumina is proud to partner with Concentric by Ginkgo to empower countries to protect the health of their citizens from infectious threats.”
