Genomics equities are scuffling alongside the broader biotechnology space this year, but that doesn’t diminish the long-term disruptive attributes of genomics investments.
With genomics ranking as one of the prime pillars of innovative growth investing going forward, this year’s slump could represent opportunity with exchange traded funds such as the ARK Genomic Revolution Multi-Sector Fund (ARKG ).
ARKG set a blistering pace last year despite not being intimately correlated to the race to develop a coronavirus vaccine. This year, it’s not unreasonable to surmise that some investors are expressing dissatisfaction with genomics names because many didn’t get involved with the COVID-19 vaccine competition.
However, ARKG may have some inroads that aren’t yet fully appreciated. Consider wastewater sequencing, which, if properly refined, could be an integral tool in predicting COVID-19 spikes.
“Wastewater sequencing is a surveillance tool that could predict COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) case rates in communities, as shown here. While technically challenging, the method might be able to serve early warning that the case rate measured by sequenced clinical samples is about to increase,” according to ARK Investment Management research.
The actively managed ARKG is home to 53 stocks and already has some wastewater sequencing exposure — an impressive feat, considering that this is a still-nascent concept.
“Recently, Ginkgo Bioworks (DNA) partnered Biobots, a company focused on wastewater epidemiology, to measure the correlation between wastewater sequencing and empirical COVID-19 case rates in all 50 states,” adds ARK Invest. “Adapting Kallisto, a computationally intensive tool used in RNA sequencing to detect isoforms, Ginkgo and Biobots have been able to surface COVID-19 variants from the general reference.”
Gingo Bioworks is ARKG’s ninth-largest holding at a weight of 3.19%, as of December 13, according to ARK Invest data. That wastewater sequencing exposure, albeit modest at this juncture, is a testament to flexibility, which ARKG attains by way of being an actively managed fund. With COVID-19 likely to be with the world for some time, there are investment implications, and ARKG is tuning into that theme.
“If the results of this project are positive, Kallisto could facilitate efforts to predict public health crises, including the detection of both pathogens and chemicals at population scale. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, wastewater sequencing could predict spikes caused by existing and emerging variants,” concludes ARK Invest.
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