In a joint effort between the Barcelona Zoo Foundation, Pompeu Fabra University, the Barcelona Museum of Natural Sciences and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), the BARCELONA CRYOZOO becomes a reality.
Our collaboration represents a partnership dedicated to biodiversity conservation and scientific research to protect endangered animal species. Zoological centers and aquariums from different places in Europe collaborate in this project with the aim of preserving the maximum biomaterial of endangered species.
Thanks to state-of-the-art scientific methods, we can preserve cells in a viable frozen state, allowing them to be thawed and used effectively in breeding programs for endangered species. But not only do we preserve cell lines, but we also develop novel techniques for generating induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSc). In the future, these iPS cells can be directed to grow into reproductive cells. Our efforts also focus on the full characterization of the generated lines. We characterize the karyotype and molecular phenotypes of these cell lines for genomic and comparative studies. All these molecular datasets of conserved biomaterials are available to the scientific community (open access).
This project not only aims to protect the species threatened today, but also to lay the foundations for a more hopeful future. By preserving the genetic material of these species, we ensure that future generations will have the opportunity to study the incredible diversity of life on Earth. This biobank represents hope in a threatened landscape, reminding us that together we can make a difference in the conservation of our planet and all its life forms.
