Cyberinfrastructure for Global Biodiversity Monitoring through DNA Barcoding

The BIOSCAN program, initiated by organizations across 30 nations, is a 7-year global biodiversity project that advances DNA-based methods to automate species discovery, uncover species interactions, and document species distributions on a global scale. BIOSCAN’s work will generate novel data to inform future conservation and management strategies.

Through dedicated facilities, BIOSCAN is building a database of georeferenced specimen records, which includes high-resolution images, DNA sequences, and occurrence records based on environmental samples.These expansive datasets are managed by the Barcode of Life Data System (BOLD) and the Multiplex Barcode Research and Visualization Environment (mBRAVE). BOLD, which houses over 18 million digitized specimens and reference barcodes, enables species identification, data standardization, and biodiversity baseline development. mBRAVE complements BOLD by providing performant tools to process and visualize high-throughput sequencing data, supporting large-scale analyses of community structure and interactions. Together, these platforms facilitate efficient data processing, secure sharing, and global dissemination, enabling DNA-based biodiversity monitoring at a planetary scale.

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Speaker Bio

Sujeevan Ratnasingham is a bioinformatician with a significant experience in the field of biodiversity genomics. As the Director of Informatics at the Center for Biodiversity Genomics, he leads innovative projects that apply machine learning and high-performance computing methods to perform biodiversity data gathering and analysis. He is the chief architect of BOLD and mBRAVE, critical platforms in biodiversity data management, and the BIN framework, a system for algorithmic species definition and registration. As CIO of the International Barcode of Life Consortium, drives data standards and governance initiatives. His work primarily aims at using computational and DNA sequencing technologies to monitor biospheric changes as tool for impact assessment and management. Sujeevan also serves as an Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Guelph.