In the era of COVID-19, how do we create safe environments for people to return to work, school, and their daily lives? B.Next’s Dr. Kevin O’Connell is joined by Troy Moore, Chief Scientific Officer and Founder at Kailos Genetics, an In-Q-Tel portfolio company providing cost-effective solutions that make genetic screening accessible to everyone. Listen in as the two explore the importance and impact of testing, genetic sequencing, the company’s capture and enrichment methodology adapted to work with the COVID-19 virus, and more.

B.Next’s Dr. Kevin O’Connell is joined by Jason Kelly, Founder of Ginkgo Bioworks, an In-Q-Tel portfolio company using the most advanced technology on the planet—biology—to grow better products. Learn more about their platform that programs cells, and how they leverage this capability to expand biosecurity and pandemic response.

Learn more at ginkgobioworks.com. 

With an abundance of information available on COVID-19 testing, where should one even begin? B.Next’s Dr. Kevin O’Connell is joined by In-Q-Tel’s Tommy Jones and Chenny Zhang to explore diagnostic testing for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Now that various COVID-19 tests are available, it’s important to determine which tests are compatible with each use case, where these tests may be taken, and how well each of the various tests perform. Learn more about the database IQT constructed to help people better navigate this testing world. 

For more information, visit covidtestdb.com.

In the final episode of the B.Next Outbreak Analytics & Forecasting series, Drs. Dylan George and Caitlin Rivers are joined by Mikel Maron, Community Team Lead at Mapbox, a company offering location data platform for mobile and web applications. The rise in ubiquity of mobile devices has enabled the power of location-based tools. This episode explores how these tools can help us better understand and combat COVID-19.

References:

• mapbox.com
• Humanitarian OpenStreetMap

In this episode of the B.Next Outbreak Analytics & Forecasting series, Todd Mostak, CEO and Founder of OmniSci, an In-Q-Tel portfolio company focused on massively accelerated analytics and data science, joins Dr. Dylan George as they discuss the power of the company’s platform to understand patterns in movement and the spread of COVID-19, and its use in contact tracing and hot spot analysis.  

References:

• OmniSci’s COVID-19 Demo

In this episode of the B.Next Outbreak Analytics & Forecasting series, Dr. Dylan George is joined by Nicolas Kruchten, VP of Product at Plotly, an In-Q-Tel portfolio company helping leading organizations close the gap between data science and the rest of the organization. Learn about the power of good data visualizations and how they can help guide decision-making and aid in COVID-19 response.

References:

• www.plotly.com
• Roundup of Dash apps made by community and partners: https://moderndata.plotly.com/covid-19-dash-apps/
• Singapore Ministry of Health: https://covidsitrep.moh.gov.sg/ 
• Nursing home data and app: https://covid-19-response.demo.socrata.com/stories/s/3eae-9zd5 and https://tylertech.plotly.com/
• Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/new-cases
• Tracking and Comparing projections: https://www.covid-projections.com/
• NVIDIA RAPIDS app: https://github.com/rapidsai/plotly-dash-rapids-census-demo/tree/covid-19 
• Traffic analysis app by Stantec: https://covid-vmt.stantec.global/