This Biotech Firm Uses Pathogen Monitoring to Make Returning to Work Safer

What's the Deal?

• Studies conclude that covid can live on non-porous surfaces for up to 3 days 
• Office occupancy in the US rose to 40% in December 2021, the highest level since March 2020
• Following the omicron variant surge, only 28% of the workforce in 10 major cities returned to the office in January 2022

While commuting, bad coffee, and awkward small talk can be reasons enough to dread returning to the office, the pandemic introduced a far greater concern: getting exposed to covid at work. 

Phylagen, founded in 2014 by engineer and scientist Jessica Green, mitigates this risk with its pathogen monitoring service.

The service, called Ecology, alerts employers to the presence of airborne illnesses in the workspace (including covid and the flu) through sample collection from high-touch surfaces, such as vending machine buttons, refrigerator and door handles, and toilet seats.. 

Customers use test kits to swab 25 surface test points around the office, then return them to Phylagen for analysis. The firm's lab will make results available on its online platform within 24 hours. 

And the results get granular workspace data is broken down room by room, and the analysis not only measures if the virus is detected but how high the viral load is. 

The company says that this method of data collection has an edge over traditional testing: sampling from shared workspaces rather than swabbing individuals is both cost effective and less intrusive. 

Phylagen wants to keep you safe at home, too, and launched a home cleanliness test kit to bring its data collection into your personal spaces. 

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