New laboratory will use DNA from natural history collections to understand the future of nature
How can the more than 14 million specimens and objects held by Natural History Museum Denmark help tell the story of how nature has changed over time – and what can this mean for the future?
Researchers at the museum will now investigate these questions using new research facilities that will make it possible to analyse DNA from historical specimens in the museum’s collections of plants, animals and fungi from around the world.
“The museum’s collections contain a unique archive of nature spanning several hundred years. With museomics, we can begin to use DNA to explore this history and gain a much longer-term perspective on how nature has changed. This opens up opportunities to investigate research questions that we have not previously been able to answer,” says Natasha de Vere, Professor, Curator of Botany and project lead for the Danish Facility for Museomics.
Museomics is a research method that involves analysing DNA from plants, animals and fungi in natural history collections. The genetic information from historical specimens can be used for a range of purposes, including investigating how species and biodiversity have changed over long periods of time.
DNA from the museum’s collections holds important knowledge about the future of nature
The new research facilities will be used, among other things, to investigate how species and ecosystems have responded to climate and environmental change, thereby contributing to a better understanding of the future of nature.
Natasha de Vere will use the laboratories to investigate how Arctic nature has changed over the past 200 years.
“I am particularly interested in investigating how climate change has affected interactions between Arctic plants and their pollinators over the past two centuries. By analysing DNA from historical plant and insect specimens, we can track these changes over time and gain a better understanding of what they may mean for the resilience of Arctic ecosystems in the future,” says Natasha de Vere.
Her research is one example of how the new facilities can be used. Other researchers will investigate how DNA from historical fish and marine mammal specimens can be used to monitor biodiversity and develop conservation strategies for marine areas under pressure from environmental change.
Museomics can also make it easier to discover and classify new species. This can provide researchers with new insights into global biodiversity and contribute to understanding and reducing biodiversity loss.
Attracting european research communities
The Danish Facility for Museomics will not only give the museum’s researchers access to new laboratories. The facilities will also fill a gap in Danish and European research infrastructure while positioning Natural History Museum Denmark at the heart of the growing international field of museomics.
“Natural History Museum Denmark is one of Villum Foundation’s major long-term commitments, and this grant is a natural next step. With the new state-of-the-art research laboratory, the museum will be able to make even better use of its unique collections and become an attractive hub for natural history research communities across Europe. The collections hold enormous potential, and the new facilities will enable researchers to ask new questions and find new answers about the history and development of nature. This is important knowledge at a time when biodiversity and the climate are under pressure, and when research also needs to reach society through the museum’s public engagement work,” says Lars Bo Nielsen, Executive Director of Villum Foundation.
The laboratories will be established at Natural History Museum Denmark as part of the new museum. The facilities are expected to be up and running by the end of 2026.
