PR97488

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

*New partnership will use the power of high-throughput sequencing to measure

and understand marine life in our oceans at a rate that eclipses traditional

research methods

Minderoo Foundation and Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN), today announced a 40

million Australian dollar (US $27.8 million) partnership that will leverage the

power of genomics to accelerate scientific understanding of marine systems and

help marine conservationists make informed decisions. The three-year

partnership demonstrates a shared commitment to conserving marine biodiversity

and understanding the changing marine ecosystems on which people and national

economies depend.

Minderoo Foundation's director of OceanOmics, Dr. Steve Burnell, said that

scaling environmental DNA (eDNA) technologies and applying new computational

and artificial-intelligence-enabled approaches have the potential to

revolutionize our understanding of life in the ocean and our ability to protect

it.

"By rapidly identifying species that may be endangered, invasive, or otherwise

poorly understood, the research will contribute data and information to support

timely and impactful marine biodiversity conservation," Burnell said. "Minderoo

Foundation is committed to returning our oceans to a flourishing state."

Surveillance of marine ecosystems using eDNA can increase the resolution and

sensitivity with which scientists understand biodiversity and can measure

change. A cup of seawater can contain millions of pieces of eDNA and cells,

providing a snapshot of the life forms present and, potentially, information on

their population size and health. However, in typical seawater samples, more

than 98% of the DNA sequences recovered belong to marine microbes. Through this

partnership, innovations from the human health industry will be adapted to help

enrich these complex marine samples for sequence information specific to marine

vertebrates.

The partners will also engage in research and development projects to create

high-throughput genome sequences from known marine vertebrates to enable

identification of unknown eDNA sequences from seawater. Because only 1% of the

roughly 21,000 known species of marine vertebrate genomes have been sequenced,

one major objective is to create reference genomes from the wealth of samples

already held in museum collections.

As part of this broad research and development partnership, Minderoo Foundation

installed a NextSeq™ 2000 Sequencing System, one of Illumina's most advanced

high-throughput benchtop DNA sequencers, aboard its research vessel.

Illumina Head of Global Commercial Strategy & General Manager of Asia Pacific

and Japan Gretchen Weightman said installing the NextSeq 2000 directly onto

Minderoo's research vessel has allowed the partners to demonstrate, for the

first time, truly high-throughput sequencing at sea, enabling near real-time

production of marine genetic information, from seawater samples to high-quality

sequencing data, in a matter of hours.

"Backed by Illumina's leading technologies, researchers will gather crucial

data and gain a greater understanding of the significant implications for the

way the world's oceans are managed, considering commercial fishing and

protection requirements," Weightman said.

ABOUT MINDEROO FOUNDATION

Established by Andrew and Nicola Forrest in 2001, Minderoo Foundation is a

modern philanthropic organisation seeking to break down barriers, innovate and

drive positive, lasting change. Minderoo Foundation is proudly Australian, with

key initiatives spanning from ocean conservation and ending slavery, to

collaboration against cancer and building community projects. To learn more,

visit minderoo.org and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn,

Instagram, and Vimeo.

ABOUT ILLUMINA

Illumina is improving human health by unlocking the power of the genome. Our

focus on innovation has established us as a global leader in DNA sequencing and

array-based technologies, serving customers in the research, clinical, and

applied markets. Our products are used for applications in the life sciences,

oncology, reproductive health, agriculture, and other emerging segments. To

learn more, visit illumina.com and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook,

LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.

SOURCE: Illumina