Normally, Berkeley's Innovative Genomics Institute, co-founded by molecular and cell biology professor Jennifer Doudna, works on research related to the CRISPR gene-editing technology she co-invented. But when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down their work, the lab, co-run by UCSF, quickly reconfigured itself to be a popup COVID-19 testing facility. Expecting to dramatically boost testing capacity in the Bay Area, they soon discovered that bureaucratic obstacles prevented hospitals and clinics from switching testing providers midstream, even though IGI would have dramatically speeded the turnaround of test results. The problem highlights how disjointed and disorganized our healthcare system has become. "It's still amazing to me, like, how can that be the case, that there is not a more systematic way to address a central need?" says molecular and cell biology professor Fydor Urnov, the institute's director of technology, who led the lab's transformation. Adapting to the situation, the lab reached out to the city of Berkeley and other local organizations to start testing underserved groups of frontline workers and other vulnerable populations. While the lab is still under-utilized, Dr. Bob Kocher, a member of California's testing task force, says that the state is in touch with IGI and another lab at UC San Diego, and he expects that their role will ramp up as the state reopens and far more testing is needed. "I think excess capacity today is ethereal and about to be used up," he says.