CSIRO’s new biodiversity vault holds key to medical breakthroughs
Scientists have opened Australia’s largest wildlife vault, where venomous creatures may hold the key to treating devastating brain diseases.
The CSIRO has unveiled a treasure trove of plant and animal specimens, which it hopes will aid conservation efforts and lead to trials of exotic science such as venom-based Alzheimer’s treatments.
Australia’s science agency on Thursday opens a new biodiversity bank in Canberra – named Diversity – to preserve a national collection of more than 13 million animal and plant samples.
Once operating, the facility will provide a chance to further Australia’s national taxonomic collection, apply findings to national environmental efforts and lending its expertise to studies at home and abroad.
More than half of the collection is made up of beetles, with 7.5 million specimens held at Diversity, along with 2.4 million moths and butterflies. Also represented are 99 per cent of Australia’s bird species, with 55,000 specimens, along with 31,000 egg clutches from 1000 species and 37,000 tissue samples in cryo-freeze.