Post by gMendel

Last week, we had the pleasure of participating in the Rwanda Baltic–Nordic Forum in Kigali, Rwanda, bringing together leaders from government, industry, finance, and academia. An inspiring opportunity to better understand the country, its people, and the partners who will help drive our mission to introduce Newborn Screening (NBS) in Rwanda. During the forum, our CEO, Chris Kyriakidis, joined a panel on: “Building Africa’s Bio-Manufacturing & Vaccine Innovation Ecosystem”, alongside with • Prof. Leon Mutesa, University of Rwanda; Rwanda Military & Teaching Hospital • Dr. Albert TUYISHIME, Ministry of Health Rwanda • Mo Ibrahim, IVS-Health A key question emerged: Where does early, affordable genetic screening fit into pandemic preparedness? Can we truly prepare for future pandemics without understanding the baseline genetic health of our populations? Our perspective: When it comes to pandemics, scale is everything. Understanding disease across populations of hundreds of thousands (or millions) requires fundamentally different tools and datasets. Today, the only universal large-scale screening program is NBS. Yet: · It is largely limited to the Global North · It relies heavily on biochemical testing · It can generate large numbers of false positives · It provides limited genetic insight Genetic screening changes this: • Higher accuracy • Deeper understanding of disease biology • Data to accelerate research, treatments, and vaccines So why hasn’t it scaled? Until now: cost and complexity. At gMendel®, we are changing that by combining genomics and AI to: • Fully automate analysis • Reduce cost dramatically • Enable true population-scale screening While the Global North faces infrastructure inertia, many countries in the Global South have a unique opportunity to leapfrog directly to next-generation systems. This is why Rwanda stands out. With its forward-thinking leadership and commitment to digital health, Rwanda is uniquely positioned to pioneer the future of newborn screening. We are excited to build strong partnerships and contribute to shaping a new model for global health. A special thank you to H.E. Dr. Diane Gashumba, Ambassador of Rwanda to the Nordic countries, for her inspiring leadership and support. #NBS #Rwanda #HealthTech #Genomics #Genetics #RareDiseases #Screening #Diagnostics #Healthcare #Innovation #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #MachineLearning #VC #Commercialization