Colossal Biosciences is leveraging genetic engineering to de-extinct critical species, enhancing conservation efforts by combatting biodiversity loss and restoring ecosystems.
The Wyss Institute prides itself on being a “dream space” where people with big ideas are given the freedom and resources to explore seemingly impossible goals. One of those big ideas was conceived of by Core Faculty member George Church, Ph.D. Church, a pioneer of CRIPSR gene editing technology, who wondered, “What if we could sequence the genomes of extinct animals like the wooly mammoth, and bring them back to life?”
A team led by Church, along with collaborators around the globe, incubated this idea at the Wyss Institute, where they performed calculations, simulations, and preliminary experiments to confirm that it was indeed possible to extract and sequence DNA from millennia-old mammoth skeletons. They envisioned an audacious future where wooly mammoth genes could be inserted into the genomes of their closest living ancestor, the Asian elephant, to create “functional mammoths” that have some of their evolutionary ancestors’ traits, such as cold tolerance. These animals could then be reintroduced to the Arctic tundra where they would resume their historical status as a keystone species, helping to keep their ecosystem resilient against climate change. And, if this process worked for mammoths, it could be replicated to resurrect other animals that humans have driven to extinction, like the dodo bird and Tasmanian tiger.
While the project’s members might have been laughed out of other labs, the Wyss provided an environment where they were instead asked “How would you build that future?” As they further developed and refined their idea, they realized they would need to harness a wide variety of disciplines to achieve it, including genetic engineering, AI and machine learning, embryology, stem cell reprogramming, tissue engineering, animal husbandry, and conservation.
In 2019, word of their mammoth project had started to spread, and caught the attention of serial technology entrepreneur Ben Lamm, who had co-founded six companies across a variety of industries including AI, mobile games, and defense. Lamm met with Church at his lab in Boston, and was taken with his team’s vision for the future and the solid foundation of science that they believed could get them there. Lamm decided to join the team, and in 2021, Colossal Biosciences launched to bring Church’s dream to life with $15 million in initial funding.
Similar to the Apollo space missions – which literally shot for the moon but also resulted in the invention of many valuable technologies including GPS, cochlear implants, solar panels, and LASIK – Colossal believes that pursuing its goal of de-extincting the wooly mammoth will result in a number of innovations in multiple industries that will drive humanity forward. It has already spun off one company, Form Bio, that aims to improve the delivery of gene therapies using AI-powered computational biology.
Colossal has now grown to over 140 scientists and has raised over $250 million. The company hopes to produce its first wooly mammoth calves in 2028.