It’s our pleasure to announce the official opening of Barcode Long Island 2025–26! We look forward to your participation this year.

BLI 2025–26 PROGRAM STRUCTURE

• PARTICIPATION OPTIONS: As the program is no longer NIH funded, schools may participate in all aspects of the program (proposal review, Open Lab assistance, equipment loan, symposium, etc.) through one of the four following options:
  1. Schools will be charged for the cost of materials and sequencing. This $250 fee per team (2-4 students) will include materials to process and sequence up to 20 samples.
  2. Schools with reagents and the means to support sequencing independent of the DNA Learning Center (DNALC) may participate; however, teams are subject to standard BLI guidelines and must continue to use the Barcode Sample Database to log sample pictures and metadata, as well as provide sequencing data (preferably via GENEWIZ/Azenta tracking number) to BLI staff. These teams must also participate in one of the campaign projects.
  3. Enrollment in the DNALC’s Associate Partner Membership or Partner Membership programs includes participation in BLI. Find additional information on our membership benefits.
  4. Schools are eligible to participate in BLI via scholarship if certain criteria are met. Eligibility information is available within the scholarship application. Applications are due no later than Friday, October 17, 2025.
• REAGENT AND EQUIPMENT SUPPORT:Teams will be able to request reagent or reagent and equipment footlockers as in previous years. Onsite Open Labs at the Dolan DNALC and DNALC NYC in Brooklyn, and Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) will be hosted by DNALC and/or BNL staff.
• PROJECT COMPLETION: Teams are required to submit a summary report and produce a poster at the completion of their projects, despite their availability to participate in the symposium. Teams who fulfill these requirements will be eligible to receive the BLI certificate of completion.

UPDATES

DNA SUBWAY 2.0 WORKSHOPS

As you may know there is an updated version of DNA Subway. To introduce this new platform, we will be offering two DNA Subway 2.0 workshop sessions on Election Day–Tuesday, November 4, 2025.

• In-person session: 9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. at Dolan DNA Learning Center, Cold Spring Harbor, NY
• Virtual session: 12:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

All trained teachers interested in learning how to use the new DNA Subway are welcome to attend. Register today.

NON-INVASIVE DNA BARCODING PROJECTS

This year we have the exciting opportunity to work with the Kansas State University Insect Zoo, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and other zoological institutions to extract DNA from tarantula molt skins. This project focuses on the identification of tarantulas in zoological collections to verify species identities. Many of these tarantulas are endangered, threatened or used in captive breeding programs, so noninvasive methods of DNA extraction are preferred. Students can contribute to this project by processing molt skins using specialized DNA barcoding protocols or they can design their own project that utilizes noninvasive or nondestructive techniques to extract DNA from living or preserved specimens. These types of projects will open up new avenues of research that could generate valuable ecological or taxonomic data without damaging valuable preserved specimens, raising ethical concerns about harming living specimens, etc.

We’ll have a limited number of samples available for these projects. If your teams are interested in participating in this new campaign, please contact barcodeli@cshl.edu for more information.

CAMPAIGN UPDATES

• Fungi and lichens: The BLI team has decided to remove fungi and lichen projects from the list of campaign options due to issues such as non-specific amplification, problematic DNA extraction, and other technical challenges.
• New campaign proposal form: A new, streamlined campaign proposal form is now available under the BLI section of the Resources tab.

Long Island Biodiversity Projects

BLI mentors should work with their teams to finalize their research proposals and review them with students prior to submitting them to the DNA Learning Center for review. Check out our resources on how to write a campaign or independent proposal.

Campaigns

This year’s campaign options are listed below. Through campaigns, multiple student teams collect species from select groups of organisms at different locations so the pooled results reveal the diversity and distribution of these taxa across Long Island. Participation in a campaign also streamlines the proposal process for teams.

This year’s campaigns include:

• Ants
• Mosquitoes
• Beetles
• Aquatic (freshwater) invertebrates (ex: insect larvae)

For participants in an ant or mosquito campaigns.

• ANTS: We developed a number of ant-related resources to assist teams with collection, documentation, and processing of ant samples through our Barcoding US Ants citizen science program, implemented in 2020. Students participating in this campaign will join a national effort to document these underrepresented organisms in GenBank.
• MOSQUITOES: Teams participating in a mosquito campaign are welcome to collect their own samples; the DNALC has two BG Sentinel-2 mosquito traps available for rent, or students can research and design their own. However, we may be able to provide mosquito samples to teams from local health departments. This could be a great option for teams who are worried about collecting a diverse set of samples late in the season.
• Note that ant and mosquito diversity decrease dramatically in the cooler months.
• Beetle projects are recommended for teams that would like to collect samples themselves but are concerned about seasonal decreases in species richness.

Independent Proposals

Teams submitting an independent proposal are encouraged to collect small organisms (smaller than 10 mm), those that cannot be easily identified using taxonomic keys, or highly diverse organisms with limited published barcode data or range information. This recommendation is aimed at increasing the likelihood that students will find informative sequences, adding to the scientific knowledge of biodiversity on Long Island.

Proposal Submission and Deadlines

To create a team and submit a proposal, mentors will need to log in to the DNA Barcoding Project Portal. New mentors will need to register to create a user name and password for the portal. Please register with the same email you used to sign up for a training workshop.

Student proposals are reviewed on a rolling basis, but as in previous years we are providing multiple submission dates to help organize teams. The proposal review usually takes 1-2 weeks, though campaign project review may be expedited. The FINAL deadline for initial submission will be Wednesday, December 10, 2025. There will be no exceptions.

• Deadline 1: Wednesday, September 24, 2025
• Deadline 2: Wednesday, October 15, 2025
• Deadline 3: Wednesday, November 12, 2025
• FINAL DEADLINE: Wednesday, December 10, 2025

BLI guidelines for participation can be found under the BLI section of Resources. Please review your students' proposals to ensure their proposed research meets our guidelines, includes appropriate references to the literature (as needed), and meets your writing standards before submission.

Symposium

Mark your calendar! The 2026 in-person symposium will take place at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Tuesday, June 2, 2026.

Additional Important Information

Please remember it is important to collect written permission to sample from public and private grounds. Ensure that your teams have these permissions on hand when sampling in case they are approached by individuals who work at these sites or law enforcement officials.

Please refer to the BLI Guidelines for additional information and restrictions.

We look forward to another exciting year of DNA barcoding!