Tracing Retrovirus through the Generations for Conservation and Health

Technology is making a powerful difference in the world of conservation, and our teams are at the forefront.

SAN DIEGO (Jan. 9, 2024) – To apply cutting-edge technology to the conservation of koalas, San Diego Wildlife Alliance is partnering with Illumina, a leading genomic sequencing technology company, through the Illumina iConserve program to sequence the whole genomes (an individual’s complete set of DNA) of nearly 100 koalas residing in North America over the past 30 years. Whole genome sequencing is integral to learning more about Koala Retrovirus, KoRV – a virus that can insert into the koala genome and is associated with various health issues in koalas including immunosuppression and cancer.

This vast wilderness landscape of Australia’s Blue Mountains was catastrophically impacted by the 2019–2020 bushfires in Australia. How will we respond next time?