Colossal Biosciences is the pre-eminent private-sector biotech firm specializing in ambitious undertakings. As for the latter, they’re doing killer work on their mission to bring back the long-extinct dire wolf. Billionaire entrepreneur Ben Lamm is founder and chief executive of the company. Its most recent $200 million Series C funding round, valuing it at a colossal $10.2 billion. This financial support will power the bold research and development efforts already in motion.
As part of its ongoing work, Colossal Biosciences has been genetically modifying mice to grow mammoth-like fur, a project that was announced earlier this year. On that note, the company has just introduced an innovative new bio-acoustic project that should get everyone’s attention. It is an analysis of mapping the various categories of dire wolf howls. According to Lamm, they do intend to make this bio-acoustic data public “later this year.”
The dire wolves are currently residing in a 2,000-acre conservation outside of L.A. They’ve begun to display distinctive vocal quirks. Sightings of these wolves starting howling as early as three weeks of age. They reacted most vigorously to songs by humans and the hoots of owls. Combined with their body language and headlights, this early vocal development makes clear the unique pitch and inflection that every dire wolf has.
These are the first two dire wolves that have lived with Colossal for the last six months, Romulus and Remus. The company has recently developed their first female dire wolf, Khalessi, and they’re preparing to roll her out. She is about three months old. Lamm and his team use that same artificial intelligence to keep a close eye on the behavior of these wolves. This technology allows them to discover emotional trends and explore what they refer to as “wolf linguistics.”
In collaboration with Yellowstone Forever and the Yellowstone Wolf Project, Colossal Biosciences aims to revolutionize wolf conservation through advanced acoustic monitoring technologies. This collaboration highlights the company’s recognition that the preservation of high-quality, natural wildlife habitat must be inextricably linked with the application of the best science.
As much as we’re still fixated on the dire wolves, Lamm teased more exciting things to come down the line…”I think maybe this summer, there could be a dodo update that’s interesting,” he remarked, suggesting that Colossal Biosciences may expand its genetic revival efforts beyond the current projects.
Despite the extensive ambitions in wildlife restoration, Colossal Biosciences has decided not to pursue dinosaur resurrection projects at this time due to their complicated nature. The company is now focusing its efforts on more technically feasible and high-impact initiatives in the field of de-extinction.
Our new bio-acoustic project, launching later this year, will help people listen in. Both the scientific community and the public at large are highly anticipating news from Colossal Biosciences. The dire wolf project is an audacious, groundbreaking attempt to bring back an iconic species. It does so by opening new doors to breakthrough conservation methods that promise to restore and rehabilitate ecosystems of all kinds.
