2024-2025: A Banner Year

2024–2025 was a landmark year for Genome Atlantic, defined by record-level investments, bold partnerships, and projects with the power to make lasting change.

From our second largest-ever project — a $17.6 million national initiative to improve health outcomes in Black Canadian communities — to major breakthroughs in protecting Eastern Canada’s oyster industry and advancing environmental DNA monitoring, this was an exceptional year of delivering genomics-based solutions to frontline industry challenges. The projects highlighted in this section exemplify the scale, urgency, and impact of the work we do — work that is only possible through deep collaboration with industry leaders, scientists, Indigenous partners, and government.

Active Projects Highlights

Managing a diverse portfolio of 33 active projects across health, aquaculture, forestry, mining, energy, and the environment, with a total value of more than $58.6M
Launched the $17.6M Black Health Genomics Initiative, a national effort to sequence 10,000 genomes and advance health equity for Black Canadians
15 Genomics Opportunity Review Program (GORP) and Strategic Partnership projects, helping de-risk emerging ideas and seed new opportunities across industries
Expanding Indigenous-led initiatives, including a First Nations-led Microbial Water Safety project to strengthen community water protection and monitoring
Driving innovation in aquaculture, with multi-million-dollar projects on disease resistance in salmon, oysters, and mussels, plus new approaches for vaccines and sustainable feed
Advancing environmental DNA (eDNA) technologies – from developing passive ship-based sampling to establishing baseline biodiversity in Atlantic Canadian ports and creating biosurveillance tools for invasive species
Supporting sustainable forestry, including the Atlantic Tree Improvement Council and genomic tools to improve tree resilience, growth, and adaptability in a changing climate
Exploring cleaner energy solutions, such as microbial genomics projects to monitor naturally occurring methane seeps to help locate offshore clean energy development

Photo credit: Laure Collins

Honouring a Genomics Pioneer

Congratulations to Dr. Ford Doolittle, Professor Emeritus at Dalhousie University, who received the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award at Genome Canada’s 25th anniversary celebration in Ottawa, in February 2025. A global leader in evolutionary biology, Dr. Doolittle’s groundbreaking research on horizontal gene transfer, genome evolution, and “selfish DNA” has reshaped fundamental views of evolution and deepened our understanding of life’s diversity.

Nominated by Genome Atlantic, Dr. Doolittle is celebrated not only for his pioneering science but also for his passion in mentoring students, colleagues, and the public to explore the “how and why” of the building blocks of life.

With a career spanning more than 50 years, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a recipient of the NSERC Herzberg Gold Medal and the Killam Prize, and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. His legacy continues to inspire curiosity, challenge convention, and expand the boundaries of scientific thought.