Colossal, a Texas-based synthetic biology company, plans to revive the woolly mammoth from extinction by 2028.
SiliconHillsNews reports that the company's CEO recently attended a speaking event where he presented interesting updates about Colossal's 'biggest' project.
The company claims it will use advanced genetic engineering techniques, including CRISPR, to create a cold-resistant elephant with all the biological characteristics of the Woolly Mammoth.
On their website, Colossal says the woolly mammoth will walk, look, and sound like a woolly mammoth, and it will be able to occupy the same icy habitat it had in the past. The mammoth went extinct approximately 10,000 years ago.
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The de-extinction project by Colossal is being led by Harvard geneticist George Church, who is in charge of a team of 40 scientists and researchers.
In a recent event, Ben Lamm, the company's CEO, said that Asian elephants would be used to deliver the baby mammoth to birth. A woolly mammoth's gestation period is 22 months, and the company has constructed artificial wombs to cultivate woolly mammoths in the laboratory.
Colossal is committed to reintroducing every extinct animal they work on back into its natural environment. The company also aims to bring back extinct animal species, such as the Tasmanian Tiger and the Dodo bird, which was extinct in the 1600s.
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SiliconHillsNews tells us that Colossal has raised $225 million in funding and spun out Form Bio, a software platform that has raised $30 million in Series A funding.
Why is Colossal bringing back mammoths?
The permafrost traps up to 600 million tons of net carbon per year, and the company argues that reintroducing these massive creatures will help limit the discharge of greenhouse gases stored within it.
Nevertheless, the mammoths will do more than merely act as a natural carbon sink. Colossal intends to convert now-overgrown forests back into natural arctic grasslands by recreating the Mammoth Steppe, which was initially a grassland environment spanning thousands of miles.
Furthermore, the mammoths, still DNA specimens freezing in a lab, will establish an ecosystem capable of defending itself against climate change-Colossal aims to understand the prominent features among cold-resistant genomes.
Colossal also aims to create a proven link between genetic sciences and climate change and provide nature with resilience in the face of humanity's adverse effects on key ecosystems.
The project is also likely to push the boundaries of multiplex CRISPR editing.
Is this real-life Jurassic Park?
The company is collaborating with Alaska natives and conservationists to suitably reintroduce the woolly mammoth.
Lamm said reintroducing extinct species will improve the ecosystem. The company focuses on ecosystem-essential linchpin species that humans have overhunted and eradicated. Colossal wants to bring back close relatives of the extinct species, not cloned ones.
Critics liken the company's efforts to Jurassic Park. But Lamm claims he managed Colossal like a software company and saw de-extinction as a systems problem.
Meanwhile, researchers calculate that projects like Colossal's could result in an overall loss of biodiversity, with around two species becoming extinct for every one that could be revived.
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