Projects

The Bat1K consortium

Bat1K is a multinational research collaboration led by Sonja Vernes (MPI), Emma Teeling (University College Dublin), David Ray (Texas Tech), Liliana Davalos (StonyBrook), Thomas Gilbert (University of Copenhagen), and Gene Meyers (MPI-CBG).

The main goal of this consortium is to generate genome assemblies for all extant bat species. These genome assemblies will provide a plethora of ground-breaking data for a vast number of fields, ranging from immunology to conservation genetics. A white paper describing this project and its potential outcomes was recently published in Annual Reviews of Animal Biosciences. The full text can be found here: Teeling et al, 2018.

The success and scale of this project hinge on the willingness of bat researchers, volunteers, students, bat lovers, and scientists from all over the world to join forces. If you are a researcher and are interested in participating or contributing ideas, resources and expertise, we would like to invite you to become a member of the Bat1K consortium.

To find out more about the Bat1K consortium, visit our website, read one of our blogs, or follow us on Twitter (@bat1kgenomes). If you have any questions or would like more information about our work, you can also send an email to Meike.Mai [at] mpi.nl (Meike Mai) (Bat1K assistant).