Gaithersburg’s 20/20 GeneSystems Honored As It Opens ‘First-of-its-Kind’ Diagnostics Incubator in Montgomery County

Gaithersburg’s 20/20 GeneSystems, Inc.’s, (“20/20”), Clinical Lab InnovationAxcellerator (CLIAx), received an honorable mention in Fast Company’s 2022 World Changing Ideas Awards in the Health category. The category “honors medical innovations that save lives, extend longevity, or increase access to care.” About 60 companies joined 20/20 as Health category honorees on this year’s coveted Fast Company’s list including Johnson & Johnson, Bose, Abbott, 3M and Colgate-Palmolive.

Believed to be the first shared CLIA lab designed to help diagnostics start-ups more rapidly enter the U.S. market, CLIAx offers nearly 3,000 square feet of ready-to-use communal clinical laboratory space and testing equipment. Additionally, 20/20’s marketing and sales teams help promote the new tests introduced by CLIAx’s clients to the market segments in which 20/20 is currently active. Since its launch in fall 2021, CLIAx was designated by the Maryland Department of Commerce as a “Soft Landing” program for overseas companies seeking to enter the U.S. market, securing its first tenant, Australian-based Minomic International Ltd, a diagnostics firm, with several diagnostics firms coming onboard in the coming months.

A panel of eminent Fast Company editors and reporters selected winners, finalists and honorees from a pool of more than 2,997 entries across transportation, education, food, politics, technology, health, social justice, and more. In addition, several new categories had been added this year including climate, nature, water, and workplace. The 2022 Awards feature entries from across the globe, from Switzerland to Hong Kong to Australia.

“We’re thrilled to join several Fortune 100 companies in being selected by Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards and to be among such outstanding innovative organizations, who are helping to transform our healthcare landscape,” 20/20 President and CEO, Jonathan Cohen said. “We launched CLIAx because establishing and maintaining a compliant CLIA lab can be costly and daunting for young companies, especially those seeking to enter the American market from overseas. Our unique CLIAx removes or lowers many of the barriers in the path of these innovators and provides our nation access to some of the most creative and out-of-the-box testing solutions from around the world. We are motivated by the engagement we’ve received so far and look forward to what we can achieve in the future.”

“We are consistently inspired by the novelty and creativity that people are applying to solve some of our society’s most pressing problems, from shelter to the climate crisis. Fast Company relishes its role in amplifying important, innovative work to address big challenges,” says David Lidsky, interim editor-in-chief of Fast Company. “Our journalists have identified some of the most ingenious initiatives to launch since the start of 2021, which we hope will both have a meaningful impact and lead others to join in being part of the solution.”

On June 2, 2022, CLIAx hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony at its facility to celebrate this honor as well as to sign the second tenant and an MOU with an area university. Local dignitaries, including the County Executive and County Council President, were among those in attendance. For more information about CLIAx, please visit https://cliaxlabs.com/.