Program areas at Revive and Restore
Biotech for bird conservationhaving raised $5m in funding in 2021, we launched this program at the beginning of 2022 with a call for proposals to develop reproductive and gene-editing methods tailored to enable new tools suited for the unique biology and conservation demands of birds. As a result, we selected 8 proposals led by scientists in the u.s., germany, korea, and japan, building new tools for diverse birds ranging from cockatiels to peacocks. Research is now underway.
Black-footed ferretsince 2013, Revive & Restore has been working to develop solutions to the threats challenging the endangered black-footed ferret: low genetic diversity and sylvatic plague. In 2022, with funding from the us fish & wildlife service and morris animal foundation, we've launched two cutting-edge projects to address both threats.
Advanced coral toolkitthe advanced coral toolkit program supports the development and fielding of new biotechnologies that have the potential to benefit coral resilience and restoration efforts. Thanks to a generous grant, we have extended the advanced coral toolkit for another 3 years. Some of the original projects in the program will be awarded additional funding with the aim to move lab-scale research to prototype development and/or first proof-of-concept field experiments.
In 2022, Revive & Restore launched the informed biobanking program in partnership with the u.s. Fish & wildlife service to biobank samples from all u.s. Endangered species. We developed a biobanking pipeline for cell culturing with the san diego zoo wildlife alliance and viagen pets and equine. The groundwork was laid for a biobanking pilot program with the usfws to biobank and sequence genomes from 10 endangered species in the us southwest. Standard protocols were compiled for tissue collection, starting with mammal species. Also in 2022, wild genomes amphibians was launched in partnership with morris animal foundation to apply genetic insight to the protection and management of amphibian wildlife. And finally, planning began for a stem cell workshop to take place in the fall of 2023.