De-extinction company Colossal Biosciences announced $200 million in a Series C funding round by TWG Global, jointly led by Mark Walter and Thomas Tull. And Colossal’s additional strategic investors include funds such as USIT, Animal Capital, Breyer Capital, At One Ventures, In-Q-Tel, BOLD Capital, Peak 6, and Draper Associates, and others and private investors including Robert Nelsen, Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Ric Edelman, Brandon Fugal, Paul Tudor Jones, Richard Garriott, Giammaria Giuliani, Sven-Olof Lindblad, Victor Vescovo, and Jeff Wilke.
Since the company launched in September 2021, Colossal has raised $435 million in total funding. This latest funding round places the company at a $10.2 billion valuation.
Colossal will utilize this latest infusion of capital to continue to advance its genetic engineering technologies while pioneering new revolutionary software, wetware, and hardware solutions, which have applications beyond de-extinction, including species preservation and human healthcare.
Colossal employs 170+ scientists and partners with labs in Boston, Dallas, and Melbourne, Australia. And Colossal sponsors over 40 full-time postdoctoral scholars and research programs in 16 partner labs at some of the most prestigious universities around the globe. Colossal’s scientific advisory board has grown to include 95+ top scientists working in genomics, ancient DNA, ecology, conservation, developmental biology, and paleontology. These teams are tackling some of the most complex problems in biology, including mapping genotypes to traits and behaviors, understanding developmental pathways to phenotypes like craniofacial shape, tusk formation, and coat color patterning, and developing new tools for multiplex and large-insert genome engineering.
In October 2024, the Colossal Foundation was launched, a sister 501(c)(3) focused on overseeing the deployment and application of Colossal-developed science and technology innovations. And the organization currently supports 48 conservation partners and their global initiatives worldwide. This includes partners such as Re:wild, Save The Elephants, Biorescue, Birdlife International, Conservation Nation, Sezarc, Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, Aussie Ark, International Elephant Foundation, and Saving Animals From Extinction. Currently, the Colossal Foundation is focused on supporting conservation partners working on new innovative technologies that can be applied to conservation and those who benefit from developing and deploying new genetic rescue and de-extinction technologies to help combat the biodiversity extinction crisis.
The first step in every de-extinction project is to recover and analyze preserved genetic material and use that data to identify each species’ core genomic components. Along with recruiting Dr. Beth Shapiro, a global leader in ancient DNA research, as Colossal’s Chief Science Officer, Colossal has created a team of Ph.D experts in ancient DNA among its scientific advisors, including Love Dalen, Andrew Pask, Tom Gilbert, Michael Hofreiter, Hendrik Poinar, Erez Lieberman Aiden, and Matthew Wooler. With this team, Colossal continues pushing advances in ancient DNA through support to academic labs and internal scientific research. All three core species – mammoth, thylacine, and dodo – have already benefited from this coalescence of expertise. For example, Colossal now has the most contiguous and complete ancient genomes for each of these three species; these genomes are the blueprints from which these species’ core traits will be engineered.
This path from ancient genomes to living species requires a systems model approach to innovation across computational biology, cellular engineering, genetic engineering, embryology, and animal husbandry, with refinement and tuning in each step along the de-extinction pipeline occurring simultaneously. Colossal’s scientists have achieved monumental breakthroughs at each step for each of the three flagship species.
Over the last three years, Colossal’s first significant project to be announced, the woolly mammoth project, generated new genomic resources, made breakthroughs in cell biology and genome engineering, and explored the ecological impact of de-extinction, with implications for mammoths, elephants, and species across the vertebrate tree of life.
The mammoth team has:
— Generated chromosome-scale reference genomes for the African elephant, Asian elephant, and rock hyrax, all of which have been released on the National Center for Biotechnology Information database;
— Generated the first de novo assembled mammoth genome – a genome generated using only the ancient DNA reads rather than mapped to a reference genome. This genome identified several genetic loci that are missing in reference-guided assemblies;
— Acquired and aligned 60+ ancient genomes for the woolly and Columbian mammoth in collaboration with key scientific advisors Love Dalen and Tom van der Valk. This data, in combination with 30+ genomes for extant elephant species, including Asian, African, and Bornean elephants, has dramatically increased the accuracy of mammoth-specific variant calling;
— Derived, characterized, and biobanked 10+ primary cell lines from acquired tissue for Asian elephants, rock hyrax, and aardvark for use in company conservation and de-extinction pipelines
— Became the first to derive pluripotent stem cells for Asian elephants. These cells are essential for in-vitro embryogenesis and gametogenesis
— Generated neuronal and cardiac precursor cells from elephant iPSCs, demonstrating the potential of these stem cell populations
— Fine-tuned and redesigned transcription factors using state-of-the-art machine algorithms to generate novel proteins with increased capacity for cellular reprogramming
— Generated TP53 mutant variants and reversibly integrated over-expression cassettes to facilitate immortalization of elephant cells that can be used in downstream editing efficiency screening
— Optimized media to facilitate the proliferation of immortalized cell lines and enhance the viability of biosamples following cryo-preservation, which is a critical aspect of biobanking effort
— Demonstrated multiplex gene editing at 20+ target sites of high-impact genes associated with core cold adaptation mammoth phenotypes
— Established a hair organoid model to assess the impact of key genetic targets on the formation capacity and development of hair follicles as a means to validate edit target selection
— Built a leading embryology lab for endangered species work and started the process of refining protocols for the elephant somatic cell nuclear transfer process
Thylacine De-extinction Project Progress:
The Colossal thylacine team recently made announcements demonstrating progress on the various work streams critical for the de-extinction of the thylacine. Since that team’s creation two years ago the Australia and Texas-based teams have:
— Generated the highest-quality ancient genome to date for a Thylacine, at 99.9% complete, using ancient long reads and ancient RNA – a world’s first and once thought to be an impossible goal – creating the genomic blueprint for Thylacine de-extinction
— Generated ancient genomes for 11 individual thylacines, gaining an understanding of fixed variants versus population-level variation in thylacines pre-extinction and enabling more accurate prediction of de-extinction targets
— Assembled telomere-to-telomere genome sequences for all dasyurid species – the evolutionary cousins of thylacines– providing resources both to improve Colossal’s understanding thylacine evolution and underpin thylacine engineering efforts and to aid in the conservation of threatened marsupial species
— Became the first to derive pluripotent stem cells in fat-tailed dunnarts, propelling the company on the path towards advanced in vitro functional workflows as well as establishing state of the art conservation and genomic preservation capabilities in marsupials
— Identified regions of the genome driving the development of the thylacine’s unique craniofacial shape and demonstrated, using genetic engineering in mice, that these regions drive morphological similarities between thylacines and wolves
— Established multiplex editing pipelines in dunnart fibroblast cell lines for the first identified edits, which provide the framework for the Thylacine hypercarnivore craniofacial morphology
— Made over 300 unique genetic edits into a cell line of a fat-tailed dunnart, which is the species that is the foundation for Colossal’s future thylacines and future surrogate of thylacine embryos
— Prototyped artificial ex-utero development for early-stage marsupial gestation
— Discovered and optimized an approach to induce ovulation in a dunnart, which is a vital first for both marsupial conservation and thylacine de-extinction
— Fertilized single-cell marsupial embryos and cultured them over halfway through pregnancy in an artificial uterus device
Dodo De-extinction Project Progress:
The Colossal Avian Genomics Group is now focused on the Dodo project and building a distinct suite of tools for avian genome engineering, which differs from some of the company’s mammalian projects. And the dodo specific team’s progress includes:
— Generated a complete, high-coverage genome for the dodo, its sister extinct species the solitaire, and the critically endangered manumea (known as the tooth-billed pigeon and little dodo)
— Generated and published a chromosome-scale assembly of the Nicobar pigeon (the dodo’s closest relative) as well as developed a population-scale data set of Nicobar pigeon genomes for computational identification of dodo-specific traits
— Developed a machine learning approach to identify genes associated with craniofacial shape in birds for gene-editing targets toward resurrecting the dodo’s unique bill morphology
— Processed more than 10,000 eggs and optimized culture conditions for growing primordial germ cells (PGCs) for four bird species
— Developed a new approach to isolate editable cells from feather pulls
— Established a flock of Nicobar pigeons that will act as donors for PGCs that will be edited into Colossal’s dodos
— Demonstrated that the RNA-binding protein La consistently enhances precision editing efficiency in avian genomes, leading to improved efficiency in gene-editing
— Validated that newly reported integrase variants exhibit higher enzymatic activity, which is being leveraged to establish a method for large-fragment DNA exchange
— Used genome-editing tools to alter the DNA sequence in chicken PGCs, injected these edited PGCs into embryos, and successfully hatched Colossal’s first chimeric chicks – the offspring of these birds will be Colossal’s surrogates for de-extinct dodos
KEY QUOTES:
“Our recent successes in creating the technologies necessary for our end-to-end de-extinction toolkit have been met with enthusiasm by the investor community. TWG Global and our other partners have been bullish in their desire to help us scale as quickly and efficiently as possible. This funding will grow our team, support new technology development, expand our de-extinction species list, while continuing to allow us to carry forth our mission to make extinction a thing of the past.”
– CEO and co-founder of Colossal Ben Lamm
“Colossal is the leading company working at the intersection of AI, computational biology and genetic engineering for both de-extinction and species preservation. Colossal has assembled a world-class team that has already driven, in a short period of time, significant technology innovations and impact in advancing conservation, which is a core value of TWG Global. We are thrilled to support Colossal as it accelerates and scales its mission to combat the animal extinction crisis.”
– Mark Walter, CEO of TWG Global
“Colossal is a revolutionary genetics company making science fiction into science fact. We are creating the technology to build de-extinction science and scale conservation biology particularly for endangered and at-risk species. I could not be more appreciative of the investor support for this important mission.”
– George Church, Ph.D, Colossal Co-founder, Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
“These mammoth milestones mark a pivotal step forward for de-extinction technologies. The dedication of the team at Colossal to precision and scientific rigor is truly inspiring, and I have no doubt they will be successful in resurrecting core mammoth traits.”
– Love Dalen, Professor at the Centre for Paleogenetics, University of Stockholm, and a key advisor to the mammoth project
“These milestones put us ahead of schedule on many of the critical technologies needed to underpin de-extinction efforts. At the same time, it creates major advances in genomics, stem cell generation and engineering, and marsupial reproductive technologies that are paving the way for the de-extinction of the thylacine and is revolutionizing conservation science for marsupials. Colossal’s work demonstrates that with innovation and perseverance, we can offer groundbreaking solutions to safeguard biodiversity— and the team is already doing this in many visionary ways.”
– Andrew Pask, Ph.D.
“As we advance our understanding of avian genomics and developmental biology, we’re seeing remarkable progress in the tools and techniques needed to restore lost bird species. The unique challenges of avian reproduction require bespoke approaches to genetic engineering, for example, and our dodo team has had impressive success translating tools developed for chickens to tools that have even greater success in pigeons. While work remains, the pace of discovery within our dodo team has exceeded expectations.”
“The technological advances we’re seeing in genetic engineering and synthetic biology are rapidly transforming our understanding of what’s possible in species restoration. While the path to de-extinction is complex, each step forward brings us closer to understanding how we might responsibly reintroduce traits from lost species. The real promise lies not just in the technology, but also in how we might apply these tools to protect and restore endangered species and ecosystems.”
– Colossal’s Chief Science Officer Beth Shapiro
