The CEO of Colossal, a startup that aims to use genetic editing techniques to bring back extinct species, including the wooly mammoth, assured audiences at SXSW that the company has no plans to create a real-life Jurassic Park — lest there was any doubt.
“Modern conservation isn’t working […] and we’re gonna need a ‘de-extinction’ toolkit,” Colossal CEO Ben Lamm said during an onstage interview Sunday in Austin, responding to questions from actor and board member Joe Manganiello. “I think that we have a moral obligation and an ethical obligation to pursue technologies [that] undo some of the things that we [as a species] have done.”
Colossal is working to bring back the dodo bird and thylacine, commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger, well as the wooly mammoth, Lamm added. But the de-extinction of dinosaurs wouldn’t be possible due to the lack of usable sources of dinosaur DNA.
Dallas-based Colossal, founded in 2023 by Lamm and George Church, has stated that it wants to have woolly mammoth hybrid calves by 2028, which it hopes to reintroduce to the Arctic tundra habitat. The company is also leading a research project to release Tasmanian tiger joeys back to their original Tasmanian and broader Australian habitat after a period of captivity.
That vision has resonated with investors. Colossal has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital, and it’s currently valued at $10.2 billion.
Colossal has spun out two companies focused on specific applications, including a third that hasn’t yet been announced. Lamm also said he thinks there’s “billions of dollars” to be made from the “re-wilding” of species and carbon sequestration.
One of Colossal’s recent high-profile projects is the gene-edited “woolly mouse,” a mouse species with mutations inspired by woolly mammoths. The mice, which exhibit long, shaggy, tawny-toned fur, were developed using a mix of mammoth-like and known mouse hair-growth mutations.
Some experts have expressed skepticism of the new species, arguing that the experiment was more about mouse genetics than a breakthrough in de-extinction.
Lamm, however, said the project validated Colossal’s work on wooly mammoth research.
“It showed us that, initially, our edits that we were making for the mammoth are the right edits,” Lamm said.
Lamm touched on AI during the interview, saying that he believes that the combination of access to computing, AI, and synthetic biology will be the most “dangerous” set of technologies the world has seen. But he also painted an idealistic picture of the future, predicting that synthetic biology advances in particular will lead to cures for cancer, means of removing plastics from the oceans, and the widespread availability of clean water.
“We will have true dominion over life, where we can eradicate species that are invasive or we can bring back lost species,” Lamm said, “and I think we’ll also have the ability to engineer plants — not just for food consumption, but you will be able to engineer plants with different types of proteins.”
Lamm also said that he anticipates humanity will “achieve longevity escape velocity” in the next 20 years, adding years to the average human life expectancy and making immortality a theoretical possibility.
Beyond human longevity, Lamm said de-extinction may require a “Manhattan Project-scale project” to back up endangered species specifically in “bio vaults” to create stem and egg cells. Lamm said he’s talked to “a country that seems excited about it” — without naming any names.
On the subject of public sector work, Lamm mentioned that Colossal meets “quarterly” with U.S. government agencies and that the government has invested in Colossal, presumably via grants.