Dallas-based "de-extinction" startup to open biovault in Dubai
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Visitors to the Colossal Biosciences lab in Dallas are greeted by an animatronic dire wolf near a large video screen showing one of the dire wolves resurrected by the biotech company. Photo: Tasha Tsiaperas/Axios
Resurrecting dire wolves is pretty darn metal. Hatching new dodo birds would make the impossible seem possible. Bringing back the woolly mammoth is cool.
Why it matters: Dallas-based "de-extinction" company Colossal Biosciences is banking on the wow factor of raising long-extinct creatures to fund the science that company founders believe is critical to conserving currently endangered species and biodiversity.
Driving the news: This month, Colossal announced it is creating a biovault and preservation lab to store frozen tissue and biological samples of 10,000 species inside Dubai's Museum of the Future.
- Colossal will focus first on collecting samples from the 100 most endangered species worldwide.
- The biovault will open to the public next year.
The big picture: Scientists are working in the company's Dallas lab to bring back the long-extinct woolly mammoth, dodo bird and the thylacine, best known as the Tasmanian tiger.
- Their scientific breakthroughs can also help endangered species adapt to a changing climate and reproduce.
Flashback: Dallas billionaire Ben Lamm and Harvard geneticist George Church founded Colossal in 2021, aiming to bring back the woolly mammoth.
Vibe check: Lamm brings a Silicon Valley startup attitude to serious science. The Dallas headquarters and lab has 170 employees in a multi-story, open space office.
- Most employees wear Colossal T-shirts covered in dire wolves and lightning bolts, though they're not required to wear a uniform.
- In the lab, the scientists wear sleek lab coats over streetwear and stylish glasses instead of bulky goggles.
Follow the money: The United Arab Emirates, where the biovault will be located, invested $60 million in the latest round of funding for Colossal, bringing the total raised by the startup to $615 million.
The intrigue: About 30% of Colossal's investors come from kids telling their parents about the company after hearing about de-extinction in science class or on TikTok, Lamm tells Axios.
Catch up quick: The company announced last April it had revived the dire wolf. The wolves had been extinct for over 12,500 years.
- In September, the lab announced a scientific breakthrough in resurrecting the dodo bird. The company's scientists were the first to create primordial germ cells from birds other than chickens and geese.
Reality check: Colossal doesn't claim a resurrected species is going to be exactly like it was before.
What they're saying: Lamm believes investing in the de-extinction technology and research will have a more profound impact on worldwide conservation efforts than the current government models to protect endangered animals.
- "The U.S. spent tens of billions of dollars across the last few administrations, nothing came off the endangered species list," Lamm tells Axios.
Read more: How Colossal's technology works