Extinction continues to be endlessly, however scientists at the biotech firm Colossal Biosciences are attempting what they are saying is the subsequent smartest thing to restoring historic beasts — genetically engineering residing animals with qualities to resemble extinct species like the woolly mammoth.
Woolly mammoths roamed the frozen tundras of Europe, Asia and North America till they went extinct round 4,000 years in the past.
Colossal made a splash in 2021 when it unveiled an bold plan to revive the woolly mammoth and later the dodo hen. Since then, the firm has targeted on figuring out key traits of extinct animals by finding out historic DNA, with a aim to genetically “engineer them into living animals,” mentioned CEO Ben Lamm.
In this Feb 2025 photograph supplied by Colossal Biosciences are genetically edited mice with lengthy, thick, woolly hair at a lab in Dallas, Texas.
| Photo Credit:
AP
Outside scientists have combined views about whether or not this technique will probably be useful for conservation.
“You’re not actually resurrecting anything — you’re not bringing back the ancient past,” mentioned Christopher Preston, a wildlife and atmosphere skilled at the University of Montana, who was not concerned in the analysis.
On Tuesday, Colossal introduced that its scientists have concurrently edited seven genes in mice embryos to create mice with lengthy, thick, woolly hair. They nicknamed the extra-furry rodents as the “Colossal woolly mouse.”
Results had been posted on-line, however they haven’t but been revealed in a journal or vetted by impartial scientists.
The feat “is technologically pretty cool,” said Vincent Lynch, a biologist at the University of Buffalo, who was not involved in the research.
Scientists have been genetically engineering mice since the 1970s, but new technologies like CRISPR “make it a lot more efficient and easier,” said Lynch.
The Colossal scientists reviewed DNA databases of mouse genes to identify genes related to hair texture and fat metabolism. Each of these genetic variations are “present already in some living mice,” said Colossal’s chief scientist Beth Shapiro, but “we put them all together in a single mouse.”
In this Feb 2025 photograph supplied by Colossal Biosciences are genetically edited mice with lengthy, thick, woolly hair at a lab in Dallas, Texas.
| Photo Credit:
AP
They picked the two traits as a result of these mutations are possible associated to chilly tolerance — a top quality that woolly mammoths will need to have needed to survive on the prehistoric Arctic steppe.
Colossal mentioned it targeted on mice first to verify if the course of works earlier than probably shifting on to edit the embryos of Asian elephants, the closest residing family members to woolly mammoths.
However, as a result of Asian elephants are an endangered species, there will probably be “a lot of processes and red tape” earlier than any plan can transfer ahead, mentioned Colossal’s Lamm, whose firm has raised over $400 million in funding.
Independent consultants are skeptical about the concept of “de-extinction.”
“You might be able to alter the hair pattern of an Asian elephant or adapt it to the cold, but it’s not bringing back a woolly mammoth. It’s changing an Asian elephant,” mentioned University of Montana’s Preston.
Still, the refinement of precision gene-editing in animals might produce other makes use of for conservation or animal agriculture, mentioned Bhanu Telugu, who research animal biotechnology at the University of Missouri and was not concerned in the new analysis.
Telugu mentioned he was impressed by Colossal’s expertise advances that enabled scientists to pinpoint which genes to focus on.
The similar strategy would possibly at some point assist combat illnesses in folks, mentioned Lamm. So far, the firm has spun off two well being care corporations.
“It’s part of how we monetize our business,” mentioned Lamm.
Published – March 05, 2025 11:59 am IST
