Global Genome Initiative

The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest system of museums engaged in research, education, and public exhibits. The Institution’s biological research facilities include the National Museum of Natural History, the National Zoological Park, the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. The Global Genome Initiative (GGI) is an international initiative hosted by the National Museum of Natural History to preserve and understand the genomic diversity of life. Smithsonian taxonomists, evolutionary biologists, ecologists and their collaborators are systematically preserving genomic samples of deep (roughly families and genera) phylogenetic branches of life (see our partner Global Genome Biodiversity Network, GGBN), as well using varied genomic sequencing techniques to advance the understanding of biodiversity.