News & Updates

Ocean Biomolecular Observing Network (OBON) Annual Projects Meeting 2025

The Ocean Biomolecular Observing Network (OBON) is a UN Decade program building a global biodiversity monitoring system using environmental DNA (eDNA). As co-lead of West Coast OBON, I traveled to the annual OBON Projects Meeting in Hobart to share our 2025 progress, including two workshops, a new reference sequence guide, and protocol development with BeBOP. I learned about innovative Western Pacific efforts such as PacMAN, the Australian Microbiome Initiative, and Make eDNA FAIR. I also helped lead discussions on improving global reference libraries and planning a microgrant proposal. The meeting highlighted the importance of coordinated, FAIR eDNA data to advance marine biodiversity science.