Ginkgo and the Republic of Panama Announce Plans to Establish New Biosecurity Capabilities
August 03 2023
We are proud to announce a new partnership with the Government of the Republic of Panama’s Gorgas Memorial Institute for Health Studies with the intent to develop and implement new biosecurity capabilities in Latin America.
As part of the program, Ginkgo Biosecurity will collaborate with the Gorgas Institute to strengthen their current surveillance infrastructure for COVID-19, as well as other respiratory and enteric pathogens, leveraging Ginkgo’s expertise in wastewater monitoring, lab enablement, and bioinformatics analysis and decision support.
The program is expected to operate in strategic locations that can help bolster both national and regional public health and security throughout Panama, including wastewater surveillance in major urban centers like Panama City, as well as at ports-of-entry, including the border crossing in the Darien National Park and Tocumen International Airport (PTY).
By establishing these monitoring programs, Panama will become a critical node in Ginkgo’s global network that collects data to help public health and national security officials detect and respond to emerging biological threats. The information captured from these programs is expected to play a key role in strengthening not only Panama’s COVID-19 and novel pathogen detection infrastructure, but also provide key data for regional pandemic preparedness.
