Colossal Biosciences, a Dallas-based company valued at $10.2bn, has sparked both acclaim and criticism after announcing it had brought back the dire wolf, extinct for over 10,000 years, through the birth of three pups. The company plans to resurrect the woolly mammoth within two years, followed by the dodo, using ancient DNA and gene-editing technology.
CEO Ben Lamm, a 44-year-old billionaire, embraces comparisons to Jurassic Park, stating the film “taught a large population of people… that there’s this thing called DNA and humans now can change it.” He argues the current extinction crisis, driven by human actions, creates a “moral obligation” to respond, and that Colossal’s work helps “parents in middle America care about conservation.”
Colossal’s 55,000 sq ft facility in north-western Dallas houses scientists who isolate ancient DNA and use Crispr to edit the genomes of closely related species. For the dire wolf, 14 out of 19,000 gray wolf genes were altered to produce snow-colored, larger, cold-resistant hybrid offspring. The company is also tackling the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, by editing the genome of the fat-tailed dunnart, a process requiring over a million gene edits.
Birds present greater challenges, as they cannot be cloned from skin or hair. Colossal is reviving the dodo by cultivating primordial germ cells from pigeons, the dodo’s closest relative, and the moa using emu eggs. In a lab, incubators hold pigeon and moa eggs while scientists perform delicate procedures.
Critics dismiss the efforts as “tech bro” hype that could undermine conservation, but Lamm insists the work is vital. The company has raised hundreds of millions from investors including Tiger Woods and Paris Hilton, and its reception area features an animatronic dire wolf and a mammoth model in fake tundra.
