Colossal Biosciences Partners With the UAE to Build a Biovault for 10,000 Species at Dubai’s Museum of the Future

Starting with the world's 100 most imperiled species, the Dubai biovault will function as both a genetic repository and a working laboratory, with open-source genomic data available to researchers worldwide.

The collaboration was formalized on February 3. Colossal Biosciences and the United Arab Emirates are building a biovault at Dubai’s Museum of the Future to house millions of frozen cell and tissue samples from more than 10,000 species, beginning with the world’s 100 most imperiled, among them the snow leopard, savanna elephant, great white shark, and northern white rhino, with the goal of opening as early as 2027.

The facility doubles as a working laboratory. All genomic data will be open-sourced for researchers worldwide. Colossal is working with 75 conservation groups to collect samples from animals in the wild, kept at temperatures as low as -320°F. The longer-term vision calls for a global network of seven to ten distributed BioVaults anchored to major biodiversity hubs.

This story is based on original reporting by Jeffrey Kluger for TIME. Read the full feature on TIME → https://time.com/7368806/colossal-biosciences-biovault-saving-species-dna/