Please join us for a special guest speaker on Friday, November 22 at 11:00am in DC 1302.
Title: BIOSCAN: Progress Towards Planetary Biosurveillance
Abstract: We share this planet with millions of multicellular species, most unknown. In a wild world, their
curation would be unnecessary, but human activities are placing many species at risk. As well,
global trade is dispersing species, creating serious ecological and economic damage. Improved
biodiversity management demands a global surveillance system, and the science community is
mobilizing to meet this goal. Earlier this year, organizations in 30 nations launched BIOSCAN, a
7-year, $180 million research program with three primary goals. It will automate species
discovery by processing DNA sequence arrays with algorithms based on simple rule sets. It will
transform understanding of species interactions by using DNA sequences to reveal hidden
associations. Finally, it will employ DNA to map species distributions with unprecedented scale
and resolution. BIOSCAN is establishing centralized facilities that employ DNA sequencing,
digital imaging, robotics, and computational hardware to support regimented data collection.
The resultant files provide a georeferenced, time-stamped collection record for each specimen
combined with high resolution image(s) and DNA sequence(s). Experts currently oversee key
QA/QC steps, but global biosurveillance will require a 1,000-fold increase from current
production levels, creating the need for ‘thinking machines’ to replace human-mediated
decisions. BIOSCAN is itself the antecedent for a 20-year research program, the Planetary
Biodiversity Mission, that will operationalize an earth observing system for biodiversity. Look
forward to a future where biotic forecasts aid the protection of food production systems and
human health while also fostering global sustainability and conservation efforts.
Speaker:
Paul Hebert, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics & Department of Integrative Biology,
University of Guelph
Speaker Bio:
Hebert is an evolutionary biologist at Guelph where he holds a Canada Research Chair in Molecular Biodiversity and is Director of its Centre for Biodiversity Genomics. After obtaining his PhD (Cambridge University), he held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Sydney and the Natural History Museum (London) before taking up a faculty position at Windsor. He subsequently served as Director of its Great Lakes Institute, as Chair of the Huntsman Marine Science Centre, as Chair of Zoology at Guelph, and was founding Director of the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario. His research employs DNA-based approaches to advance understanding of life’s diversity. His nearly 500 publications have attracted more than 70,000 citations, and he has trained more than 100 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Hebert has served as Scientific Director of the International Barcode of Life Consortium since its establishment in 2010. This 30+ nation alliance completed its first major research program, BARCODE 500K, in 2015 and just launched its second, BIOSCAN. Hebert is an Officer in the Order of Canada, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and holds three honorary degrees, one from Waterloo. He has received several national and international awards including the 2018 Heineken Prize for the Environment.
Date and Time:
Friday, November 22, 2019
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Location: DC 1302