A massive effort is underway to bring some of the most famous extinct animals back to life at the historic site of Deep Ellum.
This wild mission comes from a Dallas-based company called Colossal Biosciences, which is working to eliminate the woolly mammoth, which was lost 4,000 years ago.
Matt James is Chief Animal Officer at Colossal.
“We're developing tomorrow-changing technologies to end extinction, but what's surprising is that those technologies are also transforming the protection of endangered species today,” James said. Told.
Using Asian elephant DNA and DNA recovered from woolly mammoths frozen in the Arctic tundra, researchers at Colossal Biosciences used gene editing techniques to redesign the Asian elephant genome to reflect that of the woolly mammoth. ing.
“We found that woolly mammoths and Asian elephants are 99.6% gnomically similar,” James said.
And that's just part of the project.
Inside the Deep Ellum lab, work is underway to create an artificial womb to raise woolly mammoth calves.
Colossal has set a deadline of 2028.
“When I was offered this position, I was contemplating my life choices with the incredible opportunity of working at Colossal, and my brother called me and said, 'You're the first person to see a woolly mammoth. Do you realize that you could be a modern human?’ ? You could be the first person there to take a picture with a mammoth.’ And I wouldn’t pass up that opportunity. . This privilege is incredible and a great motivator,” James said.
But there is an even bigger driver.
James said restoring the mammoth ecosystem could preserve permafrost, or frozen ground, and slow greenhouse gas emissions.
“Achieving this goal is probably worth 100 lifetimes, but we need to move forward as quickly as possible because we face the urgent threat of global climate change.” said Mr. James.
Since announcing its plans for woolly mammoths, Colossal has announced similar plans for dodo birds and Tasmanian tigers.
Work is also underway on habitats to rewild animals at a sustainable level.
“People often think this sounds like science fiction, but it's actually very doable and it's happening right now,” James said.
Since its founding in 2021, Colossal Biosciences has raised $225 million for research.
