One concrete goal would be something simple where a small team of people collects samples from volunteer travelers around the world and then does a full metagenomic scan for anything that could be dangerous.
Could you feasibly get the same information from airport waste collection? I’m thinking of an airport/travel focused BioBot, but with pathogen agnostic ambitions.
“For the past 3 months, XpresCheck and their testing partner, Concentric by Gingko, demonstrated that a traveler-based SARS-CoV-2 viral genomic surveillance program can help detect emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants in the United States,” said Dr. Cindy R. Friedman, chief of CDC’s Travelers’ Health Branch. “In fact, following the rapid expansion over the Thanksgiving break, the program detected the first documented U.S. cases of Omicron sub-lineage BA.2 and BA.3,” added Friedman.
I think Concentric is aiming to continue running airport biosurveillance; the idea of working from airport waste (rather than needing to directly sample travellers) is super interesting!
Potentially—this is something myself and others working on metagenomic monitoring have discussed and would like to investigate the practicalities of. If anyone has connections to international airlines or knows about the legalities/ownership of airline waste, I’d be interested in chatting.
My company has a few airline and airport clients. My understanding is that waste management is a service the airport provides to the airlines, and I’d guess there are third party contractors involved.
I’ll be on the lookout for opportunities to learn more, and report back if I hear anything useful.
This could be easier, yes. I know of one person who models the defensive potential of different metagenomic sequencing approaches, but I think there is space for at least 3-5 additional people doing this.
Could you feasibly get the same information from airport waste collection? I’m thinking of an airport/travel focused BioBot, but with pathogen agnostic ambitions.
One interesting and somewhat-related story here: an airport spa chain called XPresSpa launched a COVID-testing service called XpresCheck and have been working alongside Concentric by Ginkgo on airport biosurveillance for specific countries:
I think Concentric is aiming to continue running airport biosurveillance; the idea of working from airport waste (rather than needing to directly sample travellers) is super interesting!
Potentially—this is something myself and others working on metagenomic monitoring have discussed and would like to investigate the practicalities of. If anyone has connections to international airlines or knows about the legalities/ownership of airline waste, I’d be interested in chatting.
My company has a few airline and airport clients. My understanding is that waste management is a service the airport provides to the airlines, and I’d guess there are third party contractors involved.
I’ll be on the lookout for opportunities to learn more, and report back if I hear anything useful.
Great!
This could be easier, yes. I know of one person who models the defensive potential of different metagenomic sequencing approaches, but I think there is space for at least 3-5 additional people doing this.