A new boost for CryoZoo, Barcelona’s animal cell biobank

(Press-News.org) The Barcelona CryoZoo is a one-of-a-kind project aiming to safeguard and study biological material from a wide range of animal species – especially those at risk of extinction – in order to preserve and better understand the planet’s biodiversity. 

Born out of an initiative by the Barcelona Zoo Foundation, a space managed by BSM through the Barcelona Zoo Foundation, and that is developed jointly with University Pompeu Fabra (UPF), EMBL Barcelona, and the Natural Science Museum of Barcelona, CryoZoo has now been awarded a competitive grant from the wildlife conservation organisation Revive & Restore. This support will allow the project to take a significant step forward in deriving and studying stem cell lines from wild animal species.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), over 47,000 species worldwide are currently threatened with extinction – an imminent loss of global biodiversity and associated loss of scientific knowledge. Conservation biology initiatives like CryoZoo aim to preserve the biological material of endangered species to ensure their long-term survival and support biodiversity research.

“While we still have living representatives of these highly endangered species, we must act to preserve their biodiversity. Having access to living biomaterials allows us to study these animals in depth without disturbing individuals in captivity, and helps us find new solutions for their conservation,” said Tomàs Marquès-Bonet, ICREA Research Professor at the UPF Department of Medicine and Life Sciences, researcher at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF), and Director of CryoZoo.

Founded four years ago, the Barcelona CryoZoo is part of the Barcelona Zoo’s biobank (along with the Tissue Bank at the Autonomous University of Barcelona) and specialises in storing animal cell lines. The project currently holds over 2,000 samples from 297 different species, including reptiles, mammals, amphibians, and fish. But CryoZoo’s mission extends far beyond simply storing biological material.

“What makes CryoZoo unique is that we not only conserve cell lines, we also perform a complete molecular characterisation, including whole-genome sequencing, transcriptome profiling (which genes are active), and chromosomal mapping,” explained Cira Martínez, researcher at EMBL Barcelona and Coordinator of CryoZoo.

This molecular data forms a repository accessible to the global scientific community (upon approval from CryoZoo’s scientific and ethics committee) and positions CryoZoo as a leading contributor to IUCN’s Animal Biobanking Working Group, alongside institutions like the San Diego Zoo.

To date, CryoZoo has preserved more than 350 cell lines, including seven induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines reprogrammed from tissue samples, 37 karyotypes, and genome sequences from 163 species.

Advancing stem cell reprogramming in wild species

A central aim of CryoZoo is to derive iPSCs – induced pluripotent stem cells – from wild animal species, enabling in vitro studies that minimise the need for live animal research. Until now, cell reprogramming techniques have relied on gene combinations already proven effective in humans. As a result, successful iPSC lines have only been established from a few species closely related to humans, such as certain primates.

Now, thanks to new funding from Revive & Restore, the UPF-led team will use machine learning and artificial intelligence tools to analyse gene activity involved in the cellular reprogramming process across multiple species. This will allow the researchers to identify which genes are key to reprogramming cell fate in each species and develop custom gene cocktails to create stem cells from wild and endangered species, with tissue samples provided by accredited zoos and aquariums. Notably, only three grants worldwide were awarded by Revive & Restore in this area.

With this support, CryoZoo hopes to identify, over the next two years, the critical gene networks needed to reprogram cells from evolutionarily distant species, such as dolphins or giraffes.

About the Barcelona CryoZoo

The Barcelona CryoZoo, part of the Barcelona Zoo’s biobank, operates within the Department of Medicine and Life Sciences at UPF and at EMBL Barcelona, both located at the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB). The project works with samples from 16 Spanish zoos that are members of the Iberian Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AIZA), as well as with specimens collected by researchers at the Natural Science Museum of Barcelona.

The funding received from Revive & Restore strengthens CryoZoo’s international standing and will enable broader collaboration with accredited zoological institutions, solidifying its role as a global reference in conservation biobanking.

CryoZoo is part of UPF’s Planetary Wellbeing initiative and the Planetary Biology Transversal Theme at EMBL.

About Revive & Restore

Revive & Restore is a nonprofit organisation dedicated to the genetic rescue of endangered and extinct species, with the goal of enhancing biodiversity and restoring ecosystems. It is a global leader in advocating for the integration of biotechnology into conservation practices. Its programs explore a variety of technologies, with the latest focused on using stem cell techniques to study wildlife diseases and engineer resilience in a rapidly changing world.

In December 2024, Revive & Restore launched a global call for groundbreaking projects in cellular reprogramming aimed at supporting wildlife reproduction and disease mitigation. Out of 50 proposals submitted from around the world, only four were selected for funding – including the Barcelona CryoZoo.

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