September 16 - October 30, 2015, OSU will be running a crowd-sourcing campaign to fund a genome project for the American Beaver. The human genome project has dramatically increased our knowledge of human biology and opened the door to many new medical treatments. Genome projects for plants and animals such as wheat, soybeans, horses and dogs have similarly expanded our knowledge of these organisms
. However, Oregon State’s mascot, the American Beaver, as yet, has no genome project! OSU’s Center for Genome Research and Biocomputing is setting out to change that. A genome project for Benny the Beaver would greatly increase our knowledge of this industrious engineer, and the benefits it contributes to Oregon’s forest and stream ecosystems. The project would also raise awareness among the children and grownups of the Beaver Nation about the contributions that genome science and OSU’s researchers make to understanding our environment. The aim of the crowd-sourcing campaign is to fund Benny’s genome project from many small donations from members and friends of the Beaver Nation, like you. The Beaver Genome Project will be carried out by OSU’s Center for Genome Research and Biocomputing. To donate, visit https://create.osufoundation.org/seqthebeav
