Colossal Biosciences CEO Ben Lamm explained at the CNBC AI Forum how the biotechnology company’s de-extinction work—including resurrecting dire wolves and woolly mammoths—aims to advance human healthcare, synthetic biology, and climate resilience, drawing connections between genetic reconstruction and future medical treatments.
From Ancient Fossils to Genetically Modified Pups in Texas
The path to the dire wolf’s return began with a skull and a tooth tens of hundreds of years old. Using artificial intelligence models, Colossal Biosciences reconstructed the dire wolf genome from this ancient DNA, mapping it against its closest living relative, the gray wolf. Technicians then edited the cells of modern gray wolves to create viable embryos.
Three resulting pups—named Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi—were born to domestic dog surrogate mothers. Their October 1, 2024 birth in north Texas marked a major milestone for the company, which is billed as “the world’s only de-extinction company”.
Skeptics quickly pointed out that the project did not truly de-extinct a dire wolf, but rather engineered a modified gray wolf. Lamm dismissed that critique during his conversation with CNBC’s Julia Boorstin at the CNBC AI Forum, calling it a semantic argument that misses the forest for the trees.
“Gray wolves are just genetically modified dire wolves. They were just done by nature or God or however you want to classify it,” Lamm stated.
Targeting Woolly Mammoths and Ecosystem Restoration by the 2030s
A parallel genetic engineering process is underway for the woolly mammoth project, which modifies Asian elephants. Colossal aims to achieve a woolly mammoth birth in the 2030s.
“We call it a woolly mammoth,” Lamm noted. “Because if it looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it serves ecological functions of a duck, it’s a duck, in our perspective.”
Lamm first entered this field after a 2019 meeting with Harvard geneticist George Church, whom Lamm called “arguably the father of synthetic biology.” Church had spent decades planning the woolly mammoth’s revival. His broader vision leveraged CRISPR and related tools not just for extinct species, but to build a programmable life model applicable to human healthcare and terrestrial challenges.
Engineered woolly mammoths could help combat climate change by stomping down snow cover in high-altitude arctic regions to keep soil frozen, and knocking down trees to transform heat-absorbing forests into grasslands.
Expanding DNA Synthesis Toward Human Healthcare and Longevity
Beyond conservation, the underlying mechanics of de-extinction are opening new avenues in genome engineering and developmental biology. Lamm detailed how these DNA synthesis breakthroughs could impact everything from microbes and ocean-bound plastics to gene therapies, targeted drug delivery for humans, and the eradication of genetic diseases.
The company is pushing the boundaries of DNA synthesis to synthesize the largest cargos of DNA. That capability is expected to transform programmable life applications.
A spin-off company named Astromech focuses on convergent evolution, investigating why genetically similar species exhibit vastly different health traits. Researchers are examining why elephants contract cancer at a fraction of the rate humans do. That research could unlock solutions for human healthcare challenges and pandemic responses. Astromech achieved a $2 billion valuation in March, according to D Magazine.
Funding and Investor Demographics Driving the Mission
These scientific ambitions have attracted substantial financial backing. In July, Colossal announced a $200 million Series C round led by TWG Global, bringing its valuation to $10.2 billion. The firm has raised more than $435 million since its founding.
Public fascination remains a powerful driver. Lamm noted that 30% of the company’s investors “come to us from their kids.”
“If we can inspire the next generation and get them excited about science and education and conservation, and then build out a synthetic biology platform that can be leveraged for so many different use cases, that’s the real mission here,” Lamm said. “Our kids, they’re going to inherit our problems, and the decisions on how we solve those.”
