Biodiversity Data as a Commons: Sequencing Life on Earth – San Francisco 2025

Thank you so much. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you so much for coming. Brad from UCLA. Um would you like Go Bruins.

Yes. No. No. Go. Go Bruins.

It's nothing. Go ahead. Um so I think like um we are very lucky also to have you both uh because obviously an you are an exe the executive director of ways ancestor and you are one of the organization that is trying to sequence life on earth under the umbrella of EBP the earth biogenome project but Brad you also have your own organization who is also sequencing life on earth in California precisely right correct and uh is also active actly working as an affiliated project to the Earth Biogenome project. Right. Correct.

Yeah. Great. Perfect. Um so first question to an um I think that I mentioned a lot uh like some information about the importance of integrating IPSC's into uh the scientific uh moonshot of sequencing life on Earth. Um, but I I bet the public would like to know more um about why is it so important to integrate IPLC's into this important work.

That's a great question. Thank you, Alex. Um, you laid it out nicely, the sad news that we're in the middle of a six mass extinction. It's actually the only mass extinction um that is completely caused by human behavior. And so um wise ancestors is looking at this problem in the sense that we we feel like we need to use all the tools in the toolbox to actually address it.

Um and so the two sides of addressing it that we are um utilizing number one is conservation genomics by creating tools for that form of conservation namely um generating reference genomes for indig u for endangered and culturally relevant species but also um bio banking samples um but also supporting local initiatives indigenous communities in the work that they do. Um why is that important? Um the one of the main reasons we still have the existing biodiversity that that is on this planet is because of and thanks to indigenous and local communities who know how to steward the land that have been stewarding the land for millennia. Um so we have a lot to learn from these communities. Um and uh it's the it's basically it's the right thing to do.

Uh so an example um I can share is a project that we have um in Colombia um where um it was a really nice the the beginning of the project was amazing. We we're working with some researchers from the Humbult Institute in Colombia who are working with local community members and a local NGO called Neotropical Innovation. Um and during the beginning of the work, they were um they were doing these bird watching expeditions to count the number of species. And it were this it was the local community members who um noticed a bird song that they hadn't heard before. That that kind of knowledge that this was something different was led to a new species being discovered.

Um and uh the interesting thing is that species, they're not seeing very many individuals of the species. So it's possible that this one species is going to be um rated as being critically endangered as soon as it gets a name. Um and so uh this collaboration between the local scientists and the local community members led to the discovery of a new species. um this project that we're funding um funds the the sequencing of that species, but it also funds uh the local community to be able to continue participate in the conservation. Um it's called the biom monitors program.

Um, and it involves uh funding five local community members for a year to to be trained in genomic technologies and also to learn about um how they can transition from the type of farming that the local community does right now in this in this region which is largely monoculture and also a lot of cattle ranching to um transition that to more sustainable farming methods. Um and this particular project they will be learning how to um to plant and raise um a particular native blueberry plant that the birds live off of and it is also useful for human consumption. So it's something that they can actually the the people that live in this area can have an economic benefit from. So this is a way that we're involving the local communities in the conservation of this particular region. Thank you.

Thank you for this enlightenment. I think it's making more sense uh and yeah explaining to people why is it so important to integrate IPSC's to this uh uh to this endeavor. Brad um you are the director of the California Conservation Genomic Project and you have been sequenced a lot of different species here. Uh would you be able to walk us through your approach? Sure.

Um, so first of all, um, as Alex said, I'm a professor at UCLA and I have a joint appointment in two departments, ecology and evolutionary biology and and a very integrative group called the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. And the project that we're talking about is is one of the main projects that I've been running for the last several years called the California Conservation Genomics Project. And the idea behind it is is is really very very simple, which is that I if there is a single rule of certainly evolutionary biology and biology perhaps in general, it is that variation is good. Variation allows you to respond to different challenges. Variation uh at the individual level, variation at the population level, variation at the species level.

And we all know the the flip side of that which is that inbreeding is bad. You know, you you express diseases uh individuals are sort of genetically weakened by inbreeding. And the opposite of that is outbreeding. And it's it's the consequence of outbreeding is is increased genic variation. Well, um it is clear as we have heard that um a lot of species are going extinct by by some estimates.

Uh during the course of my son's lifespan, my son is will be 35 next week. In the course of his lifespan, we may lose a million out of those roughly 2 million described species. How many undescribed ones we lose is anybody's guess. It's a lot of species. And you know, even if that estimate's off by an order of magnitude, 100,000 is simply too many.

That's that's it's just unacceptable. So the question is, how do we how do we deal with that? How do we how do we figure out a way to cut down that loss? We're not going to eliminate it, but but how can we reduce it? And the idea behind the California conservation genomics project is to say well if we can do rapid genomic inventories of a lot of species who are co-distributed across a landscape.

What we can do is we can identify potentially parts of a landscape that harbor genetic variation that harbor a lot of it. places where populations are not and individuals are not inbred, but they're outbred and do that across oak trees and California poppies and and uh gopher snakes and damsel flies and butterflies um across a whole wide range of of taxa. And if we can do that and protect those landscapes, then what? Then as we humans continue to change climate, if we can as we continue to add environmental insults to California or to any other place, we've protected the populations that have the best chance of evolving their way out of that crisis. They have the most standing genetic variation.

They have the most capacity to be able to evolve their way out. Maybe they will, maybe they won't, but they're our best shot. And when you're talking about hundreds of thousands of species potentially going down the drain, um that's a very very very powerful tool. So, with the California Conservation Genomics Project, what we've done is brought together 77 different investigators from across the 10 University of California campuses um to identify and contribute samples of about 250 species of plants, of invertebrates, of vertebrates, of inshore marine taxa. And for each one of those species contribute about 150 individuals tissue samples spread across the state that we are then under the project sequencing at the whole genome level at at high coverage so that we really understand genetic variation across all of those species across all of that landscape of California and use that in order to identify the landscapes that are the most important for climate resilience and and biological resilience.

Make sure that those landscapes are connected by reasonable biological corridors and that they will at least give us a shot at cutting back on some of this biodiversity crisis. And we're just about done with the project. We anticipate having the final data collected in a month or two and um being able to wrap this up and deliver it to um to the legislature and other regulatory bodies, US Fish and Wildlife Service, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, a lot of groups that we work with very very closely um by the end of the summer. So that's the project. Woo!

Congratulation. Thank you. really um since we are here talking about fundings also uh may I ask to you and Brad um where are coming those fundings because uh yeah maybe it wasn't clear enough uh all those data generated are open sourced right sorry say that again all the data generated are open sourced right correct so who is paying for this work tremendous work Um, in my case, uh, the you are, um, the state of California is paying for it. Um, and inspired member of the state legislature named Richard Bloom, uh, from Southern California, from LA, uh, partnered with us at UCLA and other UC campuses to build a consortium of members of the state legislature. Uh this was back in 2019 or 2018, excuse me.

Um and uh the we got that written uh we got $12 million written into the state budget um which by some miracle survived the state budgetary uh process. And um so that funding has gone to create um this this new set of about 21,000 fully resequenced genomes across the state of California as well as all the infrastructure for analyzing the data, storing the data, and delivering it in a consumable way for anybody from a biologist like myself to a member of the state legislature. So, in our case, I would say we're probably the opposite. There you go. Other extreme of how to get this kind of funding.

We're a nonprofit. Um, we post conservation challenges on our platform. Um, these are decentralized. It's DII basically as Alex explained. Um, and part of the um function of the platform is to crowdfund for the project.

So, um, people can come on the the website and look at all of the different projects on our dashboard. They can see how much a particular project is going to cost, how much has been raised so far, and they can contribute to it that way. Um, and we also apply for grant funding. Sometimes there will be um a foundation or some sort of organization that wants to fund um for conservation of a certain species. So, we'll apply for grant funding in that case.

But it's it's very much decentralized in the sense that um we invite the community to help us complete these projects. Okay. Thank you. And um continuing on this thread um so both of your projects and I'm part of one of them. Uh both of those project are under the umbrella of EBP which is the earth biogenome project and earth biogenome project uh have like a very interesting decentralized method of like completing the moonshot of sequencing all life on earth which is like having multiple affiliated project one in California another one working with IPSC's there is like I don't know how many projects under EBP right now, but a lot right under 60 just about 60 60 and so what do you think about this decentralized methods of EBP?

Um so I'm very involved with the EBP the the I've I've been a part of the kind of central group for for quite a while with EBP. Um I think I guess there's two things I would say about EBP. First of all, it's the Earth Biogenome Project and and what the EBP seeks to do as as you said is to sequence one individual um and produce a very good reference genome it's called. So a very complete chromosome level genome ideally for one individual of every species of the 1.8 million species described on Earth.

Um, that's a tremendous resource in and of itself though. Um, it it doesn't at least it it it helps inform evolutionary biology and I'm also an evolutionary biologist. It doesn't it only peripherally helps inform conservation because conservation is not about understanding a single individual. It's about understanding populations. It's about understanding population and species health and and resilience and and uh declines and and and for that you do need more.

It's a very very important first step. Um in terms of the funding model for EBP um I think it's fair to say it's been a real challenge. um you know what and and what EBP is is a hub for projects like mine, like ans, like you know, many many others um around the world. You know, the the the the Biodiversity Genomics Europe uh Europe genomics project, uh other projects like that. Um, and I think that where EBP needs help is with actually having some funding.

However that occurs is up for grabs. Uh, but but it's been a it's been a challenge. Do you think that EBP, so Earth Biogenome Project should also create an Earth Biogenome Fund? You want to take that? Um, I would I would say that would be great for for the EBP, but but I what I would love to see happen is a um a change in people's mindset about funding the commons and the commons in this case being biodiversity and the data that comes from it.

Um, because we're not really limited by the technology. We're not we're not so much limited by figuring out what to do to save biodiversity but we need the input of resources of funding resources. So in the case of wise ancestors we're just one organization but we could actually make a dent um because we've set up a model where we can have um an unlimited number of projects happening in parallel on our dashboard that are funded by people individuals. just if everybody just gave a little bit, we could we could get data and involve local communities wherever these species are all over the world for not a whole lot of money from individual people. So, I think that's another way to go.

So, there's there's room for both. Maybe governments should all fund um an EBP fund similar to what's happening at the UN level with the convention of biological diversity. um perhaps that that should exist, but I think also organizations like ours can make a big difference if we can just get people to realize this is a real problem and it needs to be addressed. And larger question, um Brad, I have I have you on stage so I can ask this question. more largely, what do you think would be the best solution to the biodiversity crisis?

Yeah, that's a nice easy question, right? Um, what would be the best solution to the biodiversity crisis? Well, [Music] um, one can think a little bit ultimately, one can think a little bit approximately. Um ultimately in my view um and this may be a place where Ann and I disagree to some extent but but ultimately or perhaps not um for biodiversity people are the problem and the best solution to the biodiversity crisis would be you know at some level to go back to the 1960s and and you know ZPG right zero population growth or decline at this point. Um, and reduce the human footprint on the planet.

Um, there's different ways one can do that, but ultimately, if we're not going to completely take over all the space of the planet, that's kind of what we have to do, right? We have to we have to reduce our footprint. Um, and we can reduce our footprint by, you know, being a vegetarian and not driving and doing all the things that that I'm sure all three of us do. Um but you know that's that's kind of small change. Um the the the bigger one is is to simply have fewer people um uh impacting the planet.

I think at the at the more approximate level um I think the best thing we can do to at least slow the biodiversity crisis is again I think at a at a global scale or at a national scale um bringing in any and all partners who we possibly can. We need to identify the healthiest populations, the most resilient populations of the largest number of species, including common species, including those species that we take for granted because, you know, everything is less common than it used to be. and identify those species and those taxa that and those those regions where we can protect those areas, save them for posterity and allow them as I said to, you know, to to sort of work out their community structure and their evolutionary future in a way that allows them to survive. I 100% do agree with you, Brad. I don't know how I gave you the impression I wouldn't but um um adding to that I would say um we need to shift human behavior and so um projects where it was mentioned earlier just seeding local projects where the behavior is more sustainable where people only take what they need not not overforesting not overh harvesting um and um yeah I mean still using the environment for a bioeconomy, people, we do need to live off of the land.

Um, but you know, making that happen in pockets around the world to to start to shift the behavior, I think needs to happen. Thank you so much to both of you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank Thanks, Alex.

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