Jon Brennan-Badal is Pandemic Response Lab, which provides high-throughput Covid-19 diagnostic testing to support New York City’s schools, health systems and communities. In response to email questions, he shared how the company is expanding its capabilities to target new disease areas and bridge the access gap many communities face when it comes to diagnostic services.
Why Launch a Pandemic Response Lab?
When cases began to soar at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, it became clear that rapidly scalable models of molecular testing were critical to combating the virus. The Pandemic Response Lab was established to meet this need. By leveraging laboratory automation equipment from our parent company, Opentrons Labworks, we are able to provide high-throughput Covid-19 diagnostic testing to directly support New York City’s many schools, health systems and communities. Additionally, our non-diagnostic genomic surveillance capabilities are at the forefront of detecting and tracking future variants and ensuring our communities can effectively respond to surges in cases. As Covid-19 begins to enter the pandemic, PRL is focused on expanding its capabilities to target new disease areas and bridging the access gaps faced by many communities in diagnostic services.
Jon Badal, Pandemic Response Lab
What specific needs/problems are you looking to address in healthcare?
Today, high testing costs and limited access to health care are barriers for many populations to gain important health insights through diagnostic testing. As we have seen with the Covid-19 pandemic, this disparity in access directly affects our public health response to disease outbreaks and leads to worse health outcomes in our communities. PRL’s mission is to bridge this divide by providing rapid and affordable diagnostics to communities across the country.
While the PRL may have been born in the heart of the pandemic, our mission goes beyond Covid-19. With a successful foundation, PRL is now able to provide clinical laboratory services for a wide variety of diseases. Just last month, we launched a compact breath test kit that simultaneously detects four viruses: SARS-CoV-2, influenza A and B, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), all at a cost of less than Many are PCR tests for Covid-19 only. This is a great example of how our technology can reduce costs and provide better healthcare.
What does your product do? How does it work?
The foundation of PRL is built on laboratory automation. Since its inception in 2020, PRL has taken its pipeline and operational efficiency to new heights. Our New York lab alone now has a daily testing capacity of 50,000 tests, with most results delivered within 24 hours. The extraordinary throughput and turnaround time is one of the fundamental reasons why we are the main Covid-19 testing partner in the city.
In addition to our high-throughput Covid-19 diagnostic capabilities, PRL has developed a non-diagnostic sequencing workflow for rapid detection and tracking of variants. PRL is often the first to spot variants of interest in New York. For example, PRL first discovered Beta and Omicron variants in New York State, giving the region significant time to develop a robust public health response. With this cornerstone of success, we are excited to expand our capabilities to support new disease testing.
Is this your first healthcare startup? What is your background in healthcare?
I am the CEO of Opentrons Labworks, which wholly owns and operates four business units including PRL. Opentrons provides researchers with low-cost, flexible, easy-to-use laboratory equipment to automate repetitive manual R&D operations, enabling them to leverage open source technologies to streamline laboratory processes. After Covid-19 started sweeping the world two years ago, my team and I saw how Opentrons’ automation could be used to support New York City’s health response, hence the creation of the Pandemic Response Lab. Similar to how Opentrons expanded access to lab automation, PRL expanded access to testing.
I also had the opportunity to be a board member of Genspace, a community biology lab that provides STEAM education programs for people of all backgrounds. Genspace is helping to train and educate the next wave of researchers, a cause I really identify with.
Who are your customers? How do you generate income?
PRL’s model is incredibly scalable and flexible to meet the needs of different organizations and departments. Since 2020, PRL’s leadership team has formed a strategic partnership to expand testing beyond traditional healthcare settings to safely begin reopening the economy. This includes testing at JFK and LaGuardia airports, the aged care industry, the entertainment industry, Fortune 500 companies, manufacturing and private employers. These strategic partnerships play an integral role as we expand our production capacity and fund the research and development of our expanded products.
Who are your main investors?
PRL and Opentrons are backed by many investors. Most recently, Opentrons and PRL closed a $200 million funding round from SoftBank Group Corporation in September 2021. In addition to SoftBank, we also received funding from Khosla Ventures and Sands Capital.
Is your product clinically proven?
PRL has established three CLIA laboratories across the country through which they provide Covid-19 tests approved by their respective state (or territory) regulators.Our PRL-SCV2 test has been approved by the regulatory agency, the New York State Department of Health, which is considered to have some of the most rigorous laboratory evaluations in the United States
In addition, our Rockville, MD laboratory has just achieved CAP accreditation, and we have applied for and expect the same for our Long Island City, NY laboratory. Ensuring the highest standards of quality and compliance is at the heart of our mission, and we will continue to work with regulators to improve public health outcomes.
picture: NicoElNino, Getty Images
