The de-extinction project by Colossal aims to resurrect woolly mammoths through Asian elephants, the mammoth’s closest modern-day descendant. The company hopes to create similar extinct species through genetic engineering that can withstand Arctic temperatures.
Colossal plans to edit elephant DNA for mammoth traits like thick fat and dense coats for warmth in cold. Producing embryos will enable bringing thousands of elephant-mammoth hybrids to life and transporting them to the Siberian tundra.
The team retrieves skin cells from Asian Elephants and reprogramme them into more versatile stem cells that carry mammoth DNA. Scientists extract dense hair genes from mammoth genomes in permafrost animals and implant embryos in surrogate or artificial wombs.
Researchers hope this process will birth their first set of calves in six years. Colossal has successfully raised $75m from investors for this particular project.
Ben Lamm, CEO and founder of Colossal Biosciences, regarding the guaranteed success of this project, said: “We have all the technology in hand for other species, but a lot of these techniques have not yet been applied to marsupials. We will need to develop marsupial stem cells and then a lot of reproductive technologies to turn those cells back into living animals.”
He further added: “There are no real science gates in the process. There are just engineering challenges to ensure the technologies work at scale such as ex-utero gestational devices.
Why should Woolly Mammoths come back?
While reviving 10,000-year-old beasts is ambitious, Colossal argues there are 10 core goals for bringing back the mammoth. This will slow permafrost melting, prevent 600 million tons of carbon emissions, and revert shrubbed forests to arctic grasslands.
Researchers believe resurrecting mammoths will restore the steppe and create an ecosystem capable of defending against climate change. Mammoths will help them understand dominant traits among cold-resistant genomes and save modern elephants from mass extinction.
Colossal hopes this project will help them establish a proven link between genetic sciences and climate change. It will enhance nature’s resilience to human impact on ecosystems and drive advancements in multiplex CRISPR editing.
What researchers say
Mr. Lamm commented: “In addition to the benefits of rewilding and helping to balance an ecosystem that mankind had a hand in its degradation, Colossal is developing marsupial-focused conservation and gestational technologies that will support broader marsupial conservation efforts.”
He further explained: “For example, we are developing an exo-pouch that the joeys will further develop in post-birth. The exo-pouches can be utilized for existing marsupial species such as the Tasmanian devil. The Tasmanian devil gives birth to 20 or 30 joeys.”
“However, the mother has only four nipples, so only a handful of babies survive. Our exo-pouch we are developing for the thylacine project could be incredibly helpful to conservationists working with the Tasmanian devils to take those additional 20+ joeys and give them a place to incubate further.”
Colossal is developing full-stage artificial wombs for complete ex-utero development from embryos. These gestational technologies alone will be transformational for marsupial conservation, the CEO informed TrillMag.
Do they really need to come back?
The presence of woolly mammoths 10,000 years later will certainly be fantastic. However, Colossal’s project has raised some ethical questions. Critics have argued whether de-extinction is a cost-effective method to protect biodiversity or prevent climate change. Considering the project’s expenditure, critics argue that there are possibly more cost-effective ways to save animals from extinction than bringing them back to life.
“There is definitely a list of animals that the planet will benefit from their de-extinction. Right now we are exclusively focused on the Woolly Mammoth and Thylacine de-extinction projects”, Mr Lamm revealed.
“As we make progress on these two projects, we will constantly evaluate other species where de-extinction efforts can create a positive impact on a degraded ecosystem and advance conservation science”, the tech entrepreneur informed.
Some environmentalists maintain that if the de-extinction project is successful, species threatened by extinction will not receive urgent attention and care.
As profoundly planned as this plan is, there is no guarantee that it will be successful. Ethicists say that this project might lead to a waste of resources.
Responding to the critics who called Colossal on playing god, Mr. Lamm said: “Regardless of your philosophical or religious views, I think that wherever you fall on that spectrum, we can all agree that we all have a duty to protect this planet. This planet is our spaceship in this universe right now, so we have a duty to protect that and everything that exists on it.”
“When you lose a keystone species, the entire ecosystem falls apart, whether that’s a herbivore or carnivore”, he further added. Mr. Lamm, explaining the position of Colossal said: “What we’re doing is trying to build better tools to give modern-day conservationists a winning chance against what humanity is currently doing.”
“We ‘play God’ every day when we affect the global temperature, destroy an ecosystem, or eradicate a species like we did with the Thylacine. We should work to restore what we have messed up”, stated Mr. Lamm.
