Animal Cell Line Biobank for Conservation and Research

Collaborative project of Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), Barcelona ZOO Foundation, Barcelona Museum of Natural Science, and EMBL.

The CRYOZOO project is an initiative dedicated to conservation and research to protect the biological diversity of our planet. Our objective is to create a stable biobank of animal cell lines, giving priority to endangered species worldwide. The genome (WGS), transcriptome (RNA-seq), and epigenome (ATAC-seq, and ChIP-seq) are being analysed. The induced pluripotent stem cell lines (iPSC) are created from a selected subset.

The development and maintenance of a biobank is a key element in the fight for the maintenance of the biodiversity of species and ecosystems through research. The study derived from these cell lines, as well as the successful generation of iPSCs, has a direct impact on conservation through genetic studies of individuals, populations and ecosystems, as well as in biomedicine.

Main Objectives

• Cryopreservation of viable cell lines from captive and wild species with priority to the most threatened vertebrates in the IUCN red list.
• Characterization of the karyotype and molecular phenotypes for these cell lines, such as genome, epigenome and transcriptomics for genomic and comparative studies .
• Study and Promote Research in cell reprogramming techniques for iPSCs generation.
• Contribute to final preservation of species through informed management, both from the ecological and the population view through studies and analysis of molecular data.

CRYOZOO is linked to global initiatives

How do we work? The research projects to generate new cell lines or use our existing ones are being presented to the Scientific and ethics committee composed of all the members of the CRYOZOO founding institutions. Approved projects need to sign the Material Transfer Agreement, which is specific for each cell line.

Partners

Pompeu Fabra University (UPF)

Barcelona ZOO Foundation

Barcelona Museum of Natural Science