Precision species identification for rapid environmental assessment
Precision species identification for rapid environmental assessment
across our brands
tested
since 2017
lab capacity
Taxa Genomics was founded on the Isle of Man in October 2017 by Dr. Rachel Glover, following 15 years working at the UK's Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA). The Island proved to be the ideal place to set up an environmental DNA testing company, providing easy access to freshwater, marine, and varied terrestrial environments for validation testing and method development.
Dr. Glover had spent the majority of her career working in DNA species identification and molecular diagnostics, specifically in the environmental, biosecurity and biosurveillance fields. Before leaving FERA in 2017 she completed a 3-year project for the Environment Agency to introduce the UK Government's first statutory use of metabarcoding to assess water quality for the European Water Framework Directive.
During 2020 and 2021 our laboratory equipment, personnel, and expertise was used to support the pandemic response on the Isle of Man. Prior to our involvement there was no capability to test for the COVID-19 virus on the Island, with all samples being sent to the UK on a 3-day turnaround. Taxa Genomics' expertise and equipment was used to implement a same-day NHS COVID-19 testing service for the Island. This critical capability led to the length of the first lockdown on the Isle of Man being only seven weeks' duration, and the elimination of community transmission on the Island. Our Managing Director created and led the COVID-19 laboratory throughout 2020, also providing critical genomics and surveillance advice, and in 2021 joined the Isle of Man Government's Emergency Advisory Group.
While it could be assumed that Taxa Genomics' normal services were suspended during this time, the reality was quite the opposite. Our veterinary genetics brand saw exponential growth during this period, with the number of tests we carried out quadrupling compared the number of samples tested prior to the pandemic.
During 2022-2024 Taxa invested £250,000 creating a dedicated environmental DNA testing facility at our laboratory on the Isle of Man. This included dedicated clean-room facilities, upgrading laboratory equipment and expanding the technologies available to us in-house so that we were able to test samples as fast as possible for our clients.
During this time we also greatly expanded our suite of TaxaScreen qPCR assays, allowing us to provide our customers with a wider range of cost-effective targeted species tests.
Building upon our decade of experience with long-read sequencing we brought this technique into routine use within our laboratory. This led to improved levels of species-level identifications for TaxaReveal metabarcoding over short-read technologies and allowed for full mitochondrial genome sequencing for specimens to be offered.
Taxa Genomics provides eDNA and species identification services to ecologists, consultants, conservation organisations, governmental organisations, and researchers. We also operate two additional brands, one in veterinary genetics and another in home environment testing.
Our DNA testing services support projects including protected species monitoring, invasive non-native species (INNS) detection, biodiversity and community studies. We utilise multiple techniques to support our customers including qPCR, short-read sequencing, long-read sequencing, environmental metagenomics and whole genome sequencing.
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