Colossal Biosciences Wants to Revive the Dodo

Imagine, if you will, long-gone dodos once again flouncing through the tropical forests of Mauritius, dearly departed majestic woolly mammoths stomping in the Arctic Circle, and much-missed Tasmanian tigers prowling the Australian outback. Biotech startup Colossal Biosciences is dead set on making this a reality by populating the world with revived species. 

"I think this is an opportunity where, given the man-made nature of the extinction of the dodo, man could not only bring the dodo back but also fix what was done to parts of the ecosystem to reintroduce them," noted Colossal's co-founder, tech entrepreneur Ben Lamm, in a call to Motherboard: Tech by Vice. "There's a lot of benefits from a conservation perspective, in terms of what we can learn from rewilding."

Colossal has raised $225 million from investors and celebrities, such as Paris Hilton, Hollywood heartthrobs and brothers Chris and Liam Hemsworth, and motivational speaker Tony Robbins. Bloomberg reported that the latest investment round has shot up the company's valuation to approximately $1.5 billion. 

The Demise of the Dodo

The beleaguered bird lived on Mauritius, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, some 550 miles east of Madagascar. It was driven to extinction when Dutch and Portuguese ships introduced invasive species such as rats, pigs, and monkeys into the environment. The flightless creature was also hunted for food. With its habitat nearly destroyed, the last one was killed in the late 1600s, never to be seen again. 

But the scientists at Colossal Biosciences never say never. The company's lead paleogeneticist, Dr. Beth Shapiro is "an evolutionary biologist who specializes in the genetics of ice age animals and plants," according to the Colossal website.

Shapiro is also a professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the first person to have sequenced the dodo genome. 

For Shapiro, the biggest challenge was finding a dodo specimen preserved well enough to extract a DNA sample. After scraping the insides of several dodo skulls and going through digs in Mauritius, she struck gold. The specimen was provided by the Natural History Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark. Colossal now claims to have the only known high-quality, complete dodo DNA sample. 

"A goal here is to create an animal that can be physically and psychologically well in the environment in which it lives," Shapiro told Scientific American. "If we are going to bring back something that's functionally equivalent to a dodo, then we will have to find, identify, or create habitats in which they're able to survive."

Heavy Hitters Back Colossal Biosciences

The company was co-founded by Lamm, a serial tech entrepreneur, and George Church, a top-notch geneticist at Harvard University. The firm started another round of private investment in early February to raise funds for its dodo de-extinction project. 

According to Lamm, his exciting venture has allowed him to recruit the sharpest minds. "You can work on yeast or you can work on bringing back an extinct species," he told Bloomberg. 

And forward-looking investors agree. No less than Jurassic World producer Thomas Tull - also a tech investor - joined forces in Colossal's latest Series B fundraising round.

"Along the lines of being able to bring a species back, we're going to learn things we can't learn in a wet lab," Tull told Bloomberg. "When you're doing big things like this, who knows what you're going to discover along the way."

Tull's point-of-view is shared by In-Q-Tel, the CIA's venture capital arm, which has invested in Colossal because "it's less about the mammoths and more about the capability," it wrote in a blog posted on its website in September 2022. 

The optimism runs across the board. "They're solving complex problems, and we've been pleased with the progress so far," said Jim Breyer. "Long term, there will be significant revenue opportunities around sustainability, conservation, and re-wilding." Breyer invested in Colossal through his firm, Breyer Capital, which was also one of Facebook's early backers. 

The revival of the dodo is just the first step. Shapiro is closely working with the authorities in Mauritius, which have already begun to recreate the ecosystem prevalent back when the dodo was alive. "Once we have functional dodos," she said, "we'll have to create a habitat that can sustain them." Shapiro also said that the dodo would need protection from the predators that drove it to extinction.

Colossal Biosciences: 'Give It to the World'

That's just the beginning. Colossal has revealed that it expects to revive the first woolly mammoth by 2028. It's also working on returning the marsupial Tasmanian tiger, also known as the thylacine, to its native Australia. Who knows how much these efforts could benefit humankind and the planet in the long run?

"I'm really excited about advancing these technologies," Lamm told Motherboard. "Any technology that we develop that has applications to conservation, we want to subsidize and just give to the world."

And to think, it's all starting with a bird everyone calls "dumb."

Said Shapiro, "My approach to the dodo was always deeply about the plight of the species that are in danger of becoming extinct now.

"Because everyone thinks of extinction and the dodo together, it really provides an opportunity to make people care a little bit more about what's going on. That is one of the many reasons why I'm so excited about this particular project."