Nature's code: molecular tools for wildlife genomic health and conservation

Using genomics to assess wildlife health at the genomic, cellular, and regulatory levels

The accelerating pace of global change presents profound challenges for wildlife health and survival. From habitat loss and climate change to pollution and emerging diseases, threatened populations face a host of pressures that jeopardise their resilience.

Conservation biology has traditionally focused on genetics, but advances in genomic sciences now offer unprecedented tools to understand how species adapt, persist, or decline in the face of these threats. For scientists working in species recovery, these approaches also provide the evidence needed to design more effective interventions for example by optimising breeding or translocation programs. Whether diagnosing hidden genetic risks, uncovering the environmental imprints in cells, or measuring recent environmental exposures through epigenetics, molecular advances provide tools that can guide populations toward persistence in an increasingly uncertain world. 

This event will explore how genomics can move conservation beyond traditional markers of diversity, enabling us to assess health at the genomic, cellular, and regulatory levels. Speakers will focus on innovative tools developed in biomedical research, and how these can be integrated to offer insight into wildlife health, from the hihi in Aotearoa New Zealand to the sea turtle in Cabo Verde.

For researchers, practitioners, and policymakers, the combined talks underscore that genomics is not just about decoding DNA - it is about understanding how genomes interact and respond to the environment, and how this knowledge can be used to safeguard biodiversity and health.

Speakers

• Dr Patricia Brekke, Institute of Zoology, ZSL - Genomic health and reproduction in conservation

Patricia Brekke is a conservation biologist and Research Fellow at the Institute of Zoology, ZSL. Her research focuses on adaptation and the ecological, genetic and evolutionary consequences of conservation interventions and management of species under anthropogenic threat.. Patricia's interest in female reproductive failure stems from her work on captive breeding and reintroduction programmes, and the associated impact of inbreeding on hatching success and offspring survival. Patricia is part of the IUCN Conservation Translocation Specialist Group and is an advisor to various bird reintroduction programmes in the UK and New Zealand. Patricia completed her PhD at Imperial College London on the genetic consequences of reintroduction on the New Zealand hihi.

• Dr Charley Yen, Queen Mary University of London - The Turtle Project: how can epigenetics advance sea turtle conservation?

Charley Yen completed her PhD at Queen Mary University of London in March 2025. Her research involved developed genomic and epigenomic tools to aid sea turtle conservation under climate change, focusing on the loggerhead turtle population in Cabo Verde, West Africa. She is now working as a postdoctoral researcher jointly between Queen Mary University of London and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she is continuing to develop high-throughput epigenetic tools for sea turtle conservation, now focusing on Hawaiian green turtles. Previously, Charley earned her bachelor’s degree in Natural Sciences and master’s degree in Zoology at the University of Cambridge, where she studied the evolutionary genomics of colour patterning in wood tiger moths.

• Dr Alex Cagan, University of Cambridge and Wellcome Sanger Institute - Ecology in Every Cell: Reading the Genomic Health of Species

Alex Cagan is an Assistant Professor at the Departments of Genetics, Pathology and Veterinary Medicine at the University of Cambridge. His lab focuses on developing and applying methods to study how the DNA inside the cells of organisms, including ourselves, changes as we age and how this process can be influenced by environmental factors. This relatively new field of somatic genomics has profound implications for our understanding of evolution and ageing. By applying these new genome sequencing technologies to the species that share our environment he aims to find new ways to monitor and understand how environmental exposures impact our health.