SAN DIEGO (Jan. 9, 2024) – To apply cutting-edge technology to the conservation of koalas, San Diego Wildlife Alliance is partnering with Illumina, a leading genomic sequencing technology company, through the Illumina iConserve program to sequence the whole genomes (an individual’s complete set of DNA) of nearly 100 koalas residing in North America over the past 30 years. Whole genome sequencing is integral to learning more about Koala Retrovirus, KoRV – a virus that can insert into the koala genome and is associated with various health issues in koalas including immunosuppression and cancer.

The Animal Biobanking for Conservation Specialist Group is organizing a worldwide effort to collect, bank, and share genetic resources.

SAN DIEGO (Nov. 30, 2023) – Scientists at San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance have achieved a major milestone in saving wildlife species: With a blue-eyed black lemur’s cells recently added to its Wildlife Biodiversity Bank’s Frozen Zoo®, the nonprofit conservation organization’s unique collection of genetic material now contains 11,00o individual cell lines from more than 1,250 species and subspecies—some critically endangered. No other biobank in the world has a comparable number of living cell lines, with the potential to reverse losses of genetic diversity and contribute to population sustainability for  endangered and threatened wildlife species.

SAN DIEGO (Nov. 27, 2023) – When a mysterious illness called “sea star wasting syndrome” decimated 95% of the sunflower sea star population, and some 20 other sea star species along the Pacific Coast from Baja to Alaska in 2013, scientists rallied to understand the factors that caused such a massive wasting event. Now as part of the greater recovery initiative, in a scientific first, dozens of baby sunflower sea stars were hatched and are thriving thanks to a breakthrough in reproductive cell cryopreservation technology.

SAN DIEGO (Sept. 7, 2023) – The world’s second successfully cloned Przewalski’s horse is thriving at his home at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. The foal, born Feb. 17, 2023, and his surrogate mother, a domestic quarter horse, were recently moved from his birthplace at ViaGen Pets & Equine cloning facility in Texas so he can learn the language of being a wild horse from his own species. 

The second-ever Przewalski's horse clone has arrived to his new home at the Safari Park.

In the face of increasing biodiversity loss, biobanks like ours play an essential role in conservation.

SAN DIEGO (April 19, 2023) – Scientists are elated with the recent birth of the world’s second successfully cloned Przewalski’s horse, supporting the concept that cloning can be used as a viable tool for genetic rescue and contribute to new options for fostering resilience and genetic sustainability of endangered species. The foal, born Feb. 17, 2023 to a domestic surrogate mare, is a clone of a male Przewalski’s horse stallion whose living cell line was cryopreserved over 40 years ago in the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Biodiversity Bank’s Frozen Zoo^®.

Frozen conservation is helping to secure the future for endangered species.

SAN DIEGO (Jan. 27, 2023) – Conservationists at the nonprofit San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance have announced the birth of a Przewalski’s horse —a critically endangered species of wild horse that was categorized as Extinct in the Wild until 1996. The foal is the first Przewalski’s horse born at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park since 2014, and is one of only four individuals born in North America over the past year.