A team of Australian and New Zealand researchers is hopeful IVF could save endangered frog populations around the world.
The mysterious fungal disease, Chytridiomycosis, has had a huge impact on the world's frogs, causing scientists to look to the lab for solutions.
The Wildlife Biodiversity Co-operative Research Centre, made up of 40 institutions and based at the University of Newcastle, hopes to produce frogs in the lab and introduce them into the wild across Australia.
Professor John Rodger from the University of Newcastle told AAP the genome storage technologies used for frog reproduction are similar to those used in human IVF.
"With frogs it's actually even easier, because frogs don't have to have a mum and a uterus to look after them," he said.
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"You simply have to take a sperm that you've thawed out.... and you mix them with eggs you've collected from the females and you get fertilisation."
He said some Australian unis and zoos had used the technique before, but those frogs never made it to the wild.
The frog project is one of three main research proposals from the research centre short-listed for federal government funding.
The centre is hoping for $40 million over the next five years to fund its entire body of research work.
If successful, Mr Rodger says the centre will work on 10 to 12 projects including reducing risks for cockatoos in Western Australia and reintroducing predatory mammals to Australia's mainland.
