Clinical Reference Laboratory (“CRL”), one of the largest privately held clinical testing laboratories in the U.S., announced today that it has partnered with Concentric by Ginkgo, the biosecurity and public health effort at Ginkgo Bioworks (“Ginkgo”)
| LENEXA, Kan. and BOSTON, March 31, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Clinical Reference Laboratory (“CRL”), one of the largest privately held clinical testing laboratories in the U.S., announced today that it has partnered with Concentric by Ginkgo, the biosecurity and public health effort at Ginkgo Bioworks (“Ginkgo”), the organism company, to provide scalable pooled COVID-19 testing for thousands of K-12 schools across America that are considering the return to in-person learning. CRL’s partnership will provide Concentric by Ginkgo with the capacity to test up to 1.8 million more students and teachers per week. The partnership comes after the Rockefeller Foundation recently announced an initiative with 21 testing developers, including Concentric by Ginkgo, to guide schools on providing COVID-19 testing and is intended to help implement the $10 billion allotted to routine school testing in President Biden’s American Rescue Plan.
“Pooled testing is the best strategy at this stage in the pandemic and our partnership with Ginkgo can support the reopening of thousands of schools across the country,” said Robert Thompson, CEO at Clinical Reference Laboratory. “With more than 40 years in the testing diagnostics industry, CRL will leverage its extensive expertise and advanced technology to deliver timely and accurate results so every student and teacher can return to school.” CRL and Concentric by Ginkgo will support pooled COVID-19 testing in schools across several cities and states. Concentric by Ginkgo’s pooled classroom testing model combines swabs from all consenting individuals in a classroom and runs them as a single test – significantly increasing testing capacity and lowering the cost of testing programs. Partnering with CRL ensures the timely and accurate delivery of results, which is particularly important to tracking and mitigating community spread should some pools test positive. “We are excited to have CRL join our network of testing partners. Collaborating with CRL will expand our capacity significantly and enable more schools to return to in-person learning,” said Jason Kelly, CEO and co-founder of Ginkgo. “This partnership and the recent funding by the Biden administration demonstrates just how impactful collaboration between public and private organizations can be in supporting this vital phase of the pandemic response. Simply put, it means that America can test every student, every week.” From high-complexity molecular diagnostic COVID-19 testing to toxicology and general lab testing, CRL performs hundreds of thousands of tests every day for clients large and small. In 2020, CRL leveraged its 40+ years of industry experience to quickly develop and commercialize its FDA-authorized CRL Rapid Response™ saliva-based COVID-19 RT-PCR test. CRL’s client roster includes organizations across various industries such as major universities and school districts, top financial institutions, film and TV productions as well as casinos and more. To learn more about Concentric by Ginkgo or get your school district involved, head over to concentricbyginkgo.com. About Clinical Reference Laboratory About Ginkgo Bioworks
SOURCE Clinical Reference Laboratory; Ginkgo Bioworks |
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