SCIENCE

A Project to Revive Extinct Animals Gets Huge Investment

Texas, USAWed Jan 15 2025
Bringing back animals that have been wiped out, like the woolly mammoth or the Tasmanian tiger. That's what Colossal Biosciences is trying to do. This week, they got a big boost with $200 million in funding. That brings their total funding to a whopping $435 million since they started in 2021. This Texas-based company has a big team of scientists and some impressive labs. They're using cutting-edge gene-editing tech to create animals similar to those that went extinct. Colossal made news last year when they pieced together the most complete Tasmanian tiger genome yet from an old pickled head. They also made elephant cells that can turn into any tissue type in a lab. These are some big deals in science and tech! Ben Lamm, the boss of Colossal, said this new money will help them speed up their work. They want to do even more to stop animals from going extinct. In the next few years, they hope to have a baby animal that's not a mammoth, Tasmanian tiger, or dodo. Maybe a small mammal that's born with some help. That would be pretty cool! The money comes from TWG Global, a company that invests in lots of different things. They like Colossal because they're doing important work to save endangered animals.

questions

    What are the long-term implications of de-extinction on biodiversity?
    Could resurrected species be used for sinister purposes by corporations?
    How will the reintroduction of extinct species impact contemporary ecosystems?

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