Proven in the Pandemic, Genomic Tools Are Keeping Us Healthier

If your news feed is anything like mine, you’ve probably been surrounded by stories about the 5-year anniversary of when Covid was officially named a pandemic. When I think back to where I was 5 years ago — huddled on my couch, doomscrolling Twitter and wondering how bad things were about to get — it’s not a fun memory. It probably isn’t for you, either. (Who wants to remember the frantic check-ins about whether your local stores had any toilet paper?)

Instead, I’d like to spend today’s post thinking about something far more pleasant. My introduction to the biotech space began in genomics, and it’s fair to say that Covid-19 was the first major pandemic in which genomic technologies and approaches could be deployed to keep people safer. Five years later, many of the genomic advances put in place for our pandemic response continue to make a difference — far beyond Covid. Let’s take a look at some of the most important examples.

DNA sequencing

Scientists have been able to sequence DNA for decades, but the methods available today are leaps and bounds faster and cheaper than their predecessors. That made it possible for researchers to sequence millions of viral samples during the pandemic — something that had never been feasible before. All of this data gave a breathtakingly high-resolution view of the virus responsible for Covid as it evolved, allowing scientists to track transmission paths and spot new mutations as they cropped up. Many research and clinical laboratories brought in new DNA sequencers to keep up. One legacy of Covid is a substantial boost in global sequencing capacity, with instruments that can now be used for other DNA analysis needs.

Molecular diagnostics 

Thanks to the Covid pandemic, “PCR” became a household term. PCR-based lab tests, also known as molecular diagnostics, tend to be very accurate. They’re also fast, at least in comparison to other laboratory testing methods. Much like DNA sequencing, clinical labs around the world installed new molecular diagnostic tools to meet demand for Covid testing. PCR is a versatile process, one that can serve as the foundation for a wide variety of clinical tests. In a post-pandemic world, this means that far more labs now have plenty of bandwidth to offer molecular diagnostics for a host of infectious diseases and other testing needs.

Rapid home tests

Five years ago, none of us knew that we would soon become experts at using nasal swabs to administer rapid Covid tests for ourselves and our family at home. The pandemic resulted in two major shifts: first, a huge number of diagnostic developers turned their attention to building fast tests that consumers could perform themselves; and second, consumers became far more attuned to the value of frequent and convenient testing. Today, the availability of rapid home tests for flu and Covid is helping people to take appropriate precautions, such as staying home when they’re contagious, and it’s also reducing the number of people who feel they have to go to an emergency room or urgent care clinic to get a rapid test. These are big wins in preventing viral transmission and keeping more people from getting sick.

mRNA vaccines

mRNA vaccines were in the pipeline before Covid. Even without the pandemic, they’d be inching slowly toward clinical use. But the urgency and breadth of Covid gave mRNA vaccines an opportunity to shine on a level that would never have been possible otherwise. The massive success of mRNA vaccines for Covid spurred tremendous interest in using the approach for other healthcare needs. mRNA vaccines are now in the works for everything from flu to HIV to cancer. Development for all of them is happening much faster than it would have without that global success story.

Wastewater testing

Even though it technically falls under the category of DNA sequencing, I feel the need to call out wastewater specifically here. (Is it because I still have a little PTSD from writing so much about sewage sludge during the pandemic? Entirely possible.) In my view, wastewater testing was one of the great stories that emerged from Covid. Scientists found that they could determine, with incredible accuracy, the infectious disease profile of a community by testing the water flushed down toilets. The pandemic put a spotlight on the public health value of wastewater, but this kind of testing goes well beyond Covid. Many water treatment facilities have ramped up their testing and reporting to help predict disease outbreaks. In one of my favorite examples, wastewater testing is being rolled out at some airports as a surveillance tool to detect emerging health threats among travelers.

Covid certainly wasn’t the first time that the genomics field made a difference in public health; these technologies have been very important in disease outbreaks for at least a couple of decades. But the scale of how they were used for Covid is unlike anything we’ve seen before, and it changed the trajectory of how we can respond to public health threats large and small in the future.