BioC2 is a University of Cologne Forum funded project with a duration of two years.

The anthropogenic global climate change has produced an alarming decrease in biodiversity, massive loss of natural habitats and the collateral decline of ecosystem services. Addressing this crisis requires a fundamental understanding of biodiversity, its functions and relations at all levels of biological organisation from the genome of a single organism to the ecosystem. Furthermore, despite the research efforts, 80% of the multicellular species worldwide are still awaiting scientific discover and description.

A biodiversity hub in Cologne that sequences, annotates and publishes genomes across German biodiversity is to be established. The goal is to develop a BioC2 server platform for the public publication of genome projects, related databases, and analysis infrastructures. We follow the principles of "Open Science" and provide access to all genomic data and the associated metadata. We will develop  links to international databases In collaboration with the Darwin Tree of Life project and the European Reference Genome Atlas.

The role of the University of Cologne and the RRZK in Bio C2

The long-term goal is to establish a biodiversity center in Cologne that sequences, annotates and publishes the genomes of the entire German biodiversity. BioC2 is a cooperation of zoologists (at the Biocenter/Institute of Zoology), sequencing experts (at the CCG/WGGCI and at the MPI-PZ), and HPC experts (Peter Heger and Viktor Achter at the RRZK).

In the course of the project, several high-quality reference genomes of key species from Lower Rhine habitats will be collected and prepared, sequenced, assembled, and annotated. Our part is to contribute with computational and software infrastructure to carry out assembly and annotation of the newly sequenced genomes.

Associated partners & further links

Viktor Achter

Peter Heger

Darwin Tree of Life project  

European Reference Genome Atlas   

Forum of the University of Cologne

More Information: Waldvogel Lab

This project website was created by Leandro Dillmann and Matti Ramm as part of their student internship on 07.02.2024.