Members of Wise Ancestors, Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt, and Neotropical Innovation at COP16, the world’s largest biodiversity summit, in Colombia.
December 03, 2024
By Emily Cerf
Several current and former UC Santa Cruz faculty and staff have joined with leading experts in the field of conservation genomics to launch Wise Ancestors, a non-profit centering Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities as co-creators of biodiversity conservation projects.
These projects, dubbed “Conservation Challenges,” use genomic sequencing, biobanking, and benefit-sharing to help protect species from the current extinction crisis and ultimately conserve Earth’s genetic heritage. The challenges are hosted on the new Wise Ancestors Platform, a first- of-its-kind tool to crowdfund and coordinate species-specific genomic sequencing projects. These projects will be tied to explicit benefit-sharing initiatives for conservation, led by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities.
The structure of these challenges allows the general public to participate in conservation efforts through donations to specific projects. The organization invites scientists, bioinformaticians, biobankers, laboratories, and sequencing platforms to apply and get compensated for completing elements of the research.
“There is literally no reason not to seek co-development or benefit sharing of genomics projects with Indigenous Peoples. They are the stewards of most of our planet’s biodiversity and must be empowered,” said Rachel Meyer, UC Santa Cruz Assistant Adjunct Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and a member of the Wise Ancestors Scientific Advisory Board. “The next generation demands biology done ethically. They demand accountability, fairness, and retribution. Wise Ancestors gives individuals to corporations a way to contribute to more ethical genomics and conservation,” she added.
Origins at UCSC and leadership
The idea for Wise Ancestors began with two acclaimed Professors from UC Santa Cruz: David Haussler, Scientific Director of the Genomics Institute and distinguished Professor of Biomolecular Engineering, and Anthony Aguirre, Faggin Presidential Chair for the Physics of Information.
Haussler and Aguirre were extremely concerned that our planet is currently experiencing a sixth mass extinction event, and that we could end up losing precious genomic information. Every species has millions of years of evolution encoded in their genomes, and if they go extinct, that history could be lost forever. Haussler and Aguirre’s solution to this problem was to create a new nonprofit to support and expand existing global efforts to sequence and biobank, or store, as many species as possible.
“Genomes hold the deepest secrets of our planet. Each genome records a four-billion-year struggle for survival,” Haussler said. “Wise Ancestors embraces the sacred duty of the preservation of life’s forms. To save even just one from extinction is to preserve an invaluable treasure.”
Haussler tapped Ann Pace, with whom he had worked for over 20 years at UCSC, including as Director of Research Development and Finance for the Genomics Institute, to be the new nonprofit’s Executive Director. Beth Shapiro, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCSC (and now also Chief Science Officer at Colossal Biosciences) and Keolu Fox, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at UC San Diego and Native Hawaiian, were invited to join as board members, and Aleksandra Smilek rounded out the leadership team as Creative Director and Strategist.
Wise Ancestors is guided by a deep and experienced Scientific Advisory Board, including UCSC’s Rachel Meyer, Assistant Adjunct Professor in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and Ann McCartney, Assistant Researcher in the Genomics Institute. The advisory board also includes acclaimed scientists Federica Di Palma, Chief Science Officer and VP of Research and Innovation at Genome British Columbia, and Oliver Ryder, Kleberg Endowed Director of Conservation Genetics at San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.
Beyond genomic sequencing and biobanking
As the founding members shaped the organization’s mission and operational framework, one insight stood out: conserving biodiversity requires more than genomic sequencing and biobanking—it demands addressing the human behaviors that are driving biodiversity loss.
Central to this is recognizing and empowering the knowledge and practices of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, who have sustainably stewarded Earth’s ecosystems for millennia. These communities, however, have faced displacement and atrocious harms at the hands of Western settlers, who largely replaced their ancestral and proven land management practices with new, unproven methods.
To counter these harmful practices, the nonprofit decided that each Conservation Challenge would include not only the genomic sequencing and biobanking work, but also an “upfront benefit-sharing” component, in which they support an Indigenous Peoples or Local Communities project to conserve a species or its habitat. This approach ensures that Conservation Challenges unite Western genomic approaches with traditional ecological methods, and also support Indigenous and Local Communities in protecting biodiversity.
The team hopes that the data generated from Wise Ancestors Conservation Challenges will be used by local communities members, scientists, and policymakers to inform decisions to protect species, such as breeding and repopulating programs. The pilot series of Conservation Challenges, which are funded in part by a grant from the Future of Life Institute, focuses on the following species, and is seeking additional funding and scientific collaboration:
• Critically Endangered Bermuda Cedar (Juniperus bermudiana)
• Critically Endangered Antioquia Brushfinch (Atlapetes blancae) aka “Montañerito Paisa”
• An enigmatic Antpitta (bird of Central/ South America) in the genus Grallaria, whose taxonomic affinities are under study and is likely to be Critically Endangered
In early 2024, Wise Ancestors became an Affiliated Project of the Earth BioGenome Project, a “moonshot” effort to sequence all of the world’s known plant, animal, and fungi species. Wise Ancestors also partners with the organization Local Contexts to adopt their system of Traditional Knowledge and Biocultural Labels and Notices to support Indigenous Data Sovereignty. These labels provide a voice to Tribes and Communities in controlling how their data is collected, managed, displayed, accessed, and used in the future.