Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Rapid Dx Laboratory, Ginkgo Bioworks Partner to Offer Pooled COVID Testing

  • By Matt Jones
  • 04/19/21

Rapid Dx Laboratory has announced a partnership with Concentric by Ginkgo to provide pooled COVID-19 testing to K–12 schools in both in-person and hybrid learning environments.

Rapid Dx Laboratory, a molecular diagnostics laboratory based in Houston, Texas, offers an average 12–16-hour turnaround for test results on thousands of samples per day. The lab has served private companies, long-term care facilities, underserved communities, and private schools and daycares during the last year. Concentric by Ginkgo, a public health and biosecurity program at Ginkgo Bioworks, has set the goal of providing pooled testing to every school in the U.S. It runs testing in more than 15 states and has partnered with more than 800 schools.

Rapid Dx Labs, Ginkgo Bioworks Partner

Pooled testing involves combining swabs from all consenting individuals in a single classroom and runs them as a single test. The process can increase the number of tests processed in a single go, and it also reduces the cost of the procedure for institutions.

“Rapid Dx Labs is incredibly honored to be partnered with Ginkgo Bioworks for such a historic effort,” said the Rapid Dx Founding Board members in a press release. “We need to prioritize children and their education, and we need to be taking any step that would help ensure a swift return to learning in person for our next generation. We must educate and highlight the importance of the role their participation in pooled classroom testing plays for the betterment of our future.”

“Pooled testing is a powerful testing modality for schools looking to operate in-person or hybrid learning environments,” said CEO and co-founder of Ginkgo Bioworks Jason Kelly. “Having the ability to test every student, every week, means that a community can, in a data-driven way, build confidence around the mitigation strategies they’re using to interrupt viral transmission.”

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Nashville Elementary School Receives LEED Gold Certification

    Goodlettsville Elementary School, part of Metro Nashville Public Schools in Nashville, Tenn., recently achieved LEED Gold Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), according to a news release. The 81,750-square-foot school opened in 2023 and was designed by Goodwyn Mills Cawood (GMC).

  • Building Beyond Simulation: Creating Immersive Ecosystems for Healthcare Education

    Health sciences education is one of the fastest-growing facility types in colleges and universities. The demand for medical, nursing, and allied health professionals is driving the creation and renovation of medical simulation training facilities that provide students with real-world experience through advanced simulation-based learning.

  • Planning with Clarity: Using AI to Make Better Campus Decisions, Not Just Better Designs

    Higher education leaders are being asked to make increasingly high-stakes decisions about campus facilities amid greater uncertainty than ever before. Social and economic pressures, shifting enrollment, and evolving learning models compete with growing deferred maintenance needs to strain even the most robust infrastructure budgets.

  • University of Pennsylvania Releases Design of Future Physical Sciences Building

    The University of Pennsylvania (Penn) in Philadelphia, Penn., recently released renderings of an upcoming 350,000-square-foot Physical Sciences Building, according to news release. The facility was designed by CO Architects and will unite the university’s departments of Physics and Astronomy, Mathematics, and Earth and Environmental Science.