Voting for 25 Genomes is OPEN!

A genome is an organism’s complete set of genetic instructions written in DNA. Each genome contains all of the information needed to build that organism and allow it to grow and develop, and sequencing the genome is an important step towards understanding a species.

In celebration of its 25th Anniversary, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is going to decode the DNA of 25 UK species for the first time. So far, twenty of the 25 species have been decided, and the remaining ‘big five’ will be voted for by school children and the public, starting NOW!

From 6th November – 8th December, scientists and teams from the Sanger Institute, wider Wellcome Genome Campus, Natural History Museum, and other institutions will champion a species they think should have its entire DNA sequence decoded. They’ll go head to head to face the public vote and the final five standing will complete the set of species to send to the sequencers.

We need you to…

• read their pitches
• get to know the species
• find out why their genomes matter
• vote for the ones whose genetic code you want to see fully unravelled for the first time

The winning species in each Zone will have its entire DNA sequence decoded by the Wellcome Sanger Institute!

How to take part

General public

To create an account for the 25 Genomes site, simply connect with your preferred social media profile on the homepage. Then, head to one of the Zones and join it using its Join link. You’ll need to do this in every Zone you want to take part in.

Now you can get to know each species, ask questions, and vote for the ones you most want to see sequenced!

Students

If your class are taking part, enter the username and password you created using the link your teacher gave you, into the log in form on the 25 Genomes homepage. You’ll be taken to your Home Zone – this is where you will have your Live Chat session.

Once you’re logged in, you can use the ‘Student switch to’ links to Ask and Vote for species in all the other zones.