Join the team
We are currently looking for talented individuals to join our project workstreams.
Student projects and postdoctoral positions available
Genome sequencing and reconstruction
The better our ‘blueprint’ for the thylacine, the more accurately we can restore it. This project work on improving our current thylacine genome assembly. All genome assemblies have gaps, and in this project we aim to fill those. We will also seek additional thylacine specimens with intact DNA to sequence. This will help us assess diversity in the thylacine population prior to its extinction.
Marsupial stem cell engineering
We will define efficient methods for marsupial stem cell derivation and maintenance in tissue culture. This is needed for the genome editing aspect of this project. We will perform proof-of-principal experiments to show we can edit marsupial DNA and produce viable outcomes. Ie. Cane toad toxin resistance.
Assisted Reproductive Technology
We will define methods for marsupial embryo culture, embryo transfers into the female reproductive tract and the production of a live marsupial from these techniques. We will also explore surrogate hosts for rearing of the young and the ability to hand raise from early developmental stages.