Key facts
- Aria is funding 14 projects with an initial £30 million in grants over two years.
- The projects aim to accelerate wild species' evolution to adapt to climate change.
- Gene-editing will be used on swallowtail butterflies to increase resistance to insecticides.
- Oak trees will be genetically edited to reproduce in months, aiding adaptation to drought and pathogens.
- A project will engineer bacteria to protect amphibians from chytrid fungal infections.
- Ash trees will be 'vaccinated' against dieback using RNA molecules.
The UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria) has announced funding for 14 projects aimed at using biotechnology to help wildlife adapt to the climate crisis. The initiative, part of Aria's £54 million accelerated adaptation programme, will distribute an initial £30 million over two years to develop tools for enhancing the resilience of native species.
Projects include efforts to protect ash trees from dieback, develop skin treatments for amphibians to combat fungal infections, and gene-edit swallowtail butterflies to resist farm insecticides. Researchers also aim to accelerate the reproduction of long-lived tree species like oaks to enable faster adaptation to environmental changes.
Yannick Wurm, director of the programme and professor of evolutionary genomics at Queen Mary University, London, stated that these projects explore how biotechnology can responsibly assist wild animals and plants in overcoming challenges posed by rapid environmental changes. These 'precision tools' are intended to complement traditional conservation methods.
Aria, established to fund high-risk, high-reward technological projects, has faced criticism for its research into geoengineering and grants to US tech firms. The agency's chair, Matt Clifford, recently stepped down due to a conflict of interest. Ethical considerations are paramount, with projects operating under stringent codes and confined to secure labs, with no experimental solutions planned for release during the program, which runs until 2030.
Environmentalists have debated the use of gene-editing in conservation, with some NGOs expressing concerns about irreversible alterations to natural systems. However, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has adopted a global policy on synthetic biology with strict criteria, which informs Aria's ethical framework. Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, chair of Aria's ethical advisory committee, emphasized the program's strong ethical code.