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Ginkgo Bioworks, Ceres Nanosciences Partner on Pathogen Monitoring

NEW YORK – Ginkgo Bioworks and Ceres Nanosciences said on Tuesday that they have partnered on bringing pathogen monitoring and analysis capabilities to other laboratories.

Under the partnership, the companies will provide on-site training and materials to labs to implement a wastewater testing workflow from Ceres. The labs will also receive tools and data infrastructure to enable "automation, data analysis, bioinformatics capabilities, and other critical genomic sequencing technologies," the firms said in a statement.

Financial and other terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"Ceres Nanosciences has been a terrific partner in developing effective and innovative methods for identifying pathogens in wastewater," Matt McKnight, general manager of biosecurity at Ginkgo Bioworks, said in a statement. "By combining their laboratory expertise with our global footprint, we are building a robust global biological radar to prevent, detect, and respond to biological threats."

Ginkgo Bioworks launched its Concentric by Ginkgo business, which focuses on pathogen monitoring, or "biosecurity," in 2020 and has been performing wastewater surveillance, especially from airplanes, since August 2021.

Ceres and Concentric have already set up labs in the Middle East and Africa and plan to make wastewater testing capabilities available in countries where Concentric has programs. These countries include Australia, Botswana, Qatar, Rwanda, Ukraine, and the US.

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