It is difficult to overstate the influence and guidance Beth Shapiro has lent to the field paleogenomics and the work of Revive & Restore. Beth is one of our Board Members as well as an advisor for our Passenger Pigeon Project. As Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California Santa Cruz and Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Beth uses the DNA recovered from bones and other remains to study how species have evolved through time and how human activity has affected this dynamic process. She is also a fantastic speaker, conveying great enthusiasm for...
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Sudan, the last male northern white rhino at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya. Sudan died March 19, 2018. Photo credit: MEAACT/Stuart Price. (This article was originally published in Fortune, March 20, 2018.) By: Nishan Degnarain and Ryan Phelan We are facing a global crisis in biodiversity loss. Tens of thousands of animal species are becoming extinct every year and about half of the world’s biodiversity has disappeared since the 1970s. These troubling trends show no signs of slowing down. Indeed, population growth, widespread habitat destruction, invasive species, wildlife diseases, and climate change are worsening the situation. To safeguard our planet’s...
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This article was originally published on January 17, 2018 by the World Economic Forum as part of the WEF 2018 Annual Meeting. Written by: Nishan Degnarain National Ocean Council of the Government of Mauritius Ryan Phelan Co-founder and Executive Director Revive & Restore Thomas Maloney Director of Conservation Science Revive & Restore We are facing a global biodiversity crisis. Tens of thousands of animal species are becoming extinct every year, scientists estimate. Almost half the world's biodiversity has disappeared since the 1970s, according to the Living Planet Index. These troubling trends show no sign of slowing down. Indeed, population and...
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Revive & Restore and the Hawaii Exemplary State Foundation convened 42 scientists, policymakers, and community organizers from key conservation organizations and government agencies in September 2016 to explore strategic approaches to eliminate from Hawaii mosquito-borne diseases, which harm human health and local biodiversity. Their recommendations formed the basis of a recently published white paper – "Restoring a Mosquito-Free Hawaii" – that will be an essential document for promoting and pursuing the next steps in achieving the suppression and (hopefully) the elimination of mosquito-borne diseases on the Hawaiian Islands. (Scroll down to the bottom of the page to read the report in full.)...
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Assuredly yes, it is time for synthetic biology to be incorporated into the twenty-first century toolkit for biodiversity conservation. Prompted by pressing biodiversity concerns, an influential group of scientists and conservationists organized by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature met in December 2015 in Bellagio, Italy to examine how emerging synthetic biology tools might successfully be applied to currently intractable problems. Concluding that greater collaboration between synthetic biologists and conservationists is urgently needed, participants – including Revive & Restore's Executive Director Ryan Phelan – put out a call for the community educate itself on how new genomic technologies could remedy a variety of...
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Summary | Stamping Our Mosquitoes | Genetic Rescue About the Congress Press Release Meeting Report Keynote Speaker Frequently Asked Questions NAS Gene Drive Report Pavilion Event / "Stamping Out Mosquitoes" / September 3, 2016 On September 3, and 4, 2016, Revive & Restore participated in its first IUCN World Conservation Congress, hosting two sessions to explore the potential for responsibly developing and applying new genomic technologies to critical conservation problems. The 2016 congress was the largest in the 68-year history of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, with nearly 10,000 registered participants. It was also the first held...
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