Illumina to sequence Frozen Zoo’s five-decade biobank, creating multiomic conservation resources

Illumina links Frozen Zoo’s five-decade archive to modern genomics

Illumina is announcing a large-scale sequencing collaboration with the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s Frozen Zoo, aiming to convert decades of preserved cells from threatened and endangered animals into actionable genomic resources. The agreement covers sequencing of up to 4,000 samples that represent roughly 1,300 unique species and individual animals from the Frozen Zoo’s archive, which the partners describe as one of the world’s most comprehensive biodiversity biobanks.

Sequencing archived cells to power conservation genomics

Under the pact, Illumina deploys its sequencing and multiomic capabilities to generate genomic and multi-layer molecular data intended to inform wildlife medicine, evolutionary biology and biodiversity preservation. The project uses a subset of historical samples for integrated multiomic research — combining genome sequencing with other molecular assays — to create datasets that conservation practitioners, researchers and policy makers can apply to population management, species recovery and ecological resilience efforts.

Illumina frames the work as a demonstration of how scalable sequencing technologies can activate the latent value in long-term biobanks. Cande Rogert, vice president and global head of Advanced Sciences at Illumina, says the collaboration shows multiomic technologies “activate the potential of critical biodiversity biobanks.” By linking sample metadata collected over five decades with modern genomic profiles, the partners expect to generate reference resources that support diagnostics, breeding decisions and inferred demographic histories for at-risk taxa.

The Frozen Zoo’s vice president of conservation science, Megan Owen, says the partnership marks a “new era of genomic discovery” that accelerates capacity to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. She frames the next 50 years of the Frozen Zoo as reliant on a global network of conservation scientists and scalable multiomic platforms to maximize the research and practical impact of biobanked samples.

Broader industry and conservation implications

The agreement highlights a growing trend in which commercial sequencing providers extend services into conservation genomics, applying high-throughput technologies originally developed for human and agricultural genomics to wildlife and ecosystem challenges. Observers say the resulting datasets can improve monitoring of genetic diversity, inform translocation and captive-breeding programs, and support policy decisions grounded in molecular evidence.

Technical and operational scope

Illumina and the Frozen Zoo expect sequencing outputs to become a shared resource for the conservation community, with data products aimed at enabling comparative genomics, population structure analyses and other multiomic investigations. The partners emphasize that converting stored cellular material into standardized genomic resources is central to making long-term biobanks more immediately useful to field and policy applications.