On Monday, “reluctant” startup Colossal Biosciences announced its most ambitious result to date, Dire Wolf. These are creatures that have been extinct for over 12,000 years and become famous for the HBO show “Game of Thrones.”
These white fluffy animals live in a 2,000-acre sanctuary in a very secret location, including journalists from TechCrunch invited to see the live animals. Instead, we fly to another secret place and see the animals with our own eyes, as we cannot trust photos in this age of AI.
There, two six-month-old men were seen, named Remus and Romulus. Each already weighs about 80 pounds. They saw inexperienced eyes, like a very large wild dog with a slightly larger skull and an elongated muzzle. In addition to Remus and Romulus, the company’s designed Dire Wolf Pack includes a two-month-old woman named Khaleesi.
However, the company says there is little ordinary about them. Colossal’s miserable wolves are the result of 18 months of effort based on genes found in fossil teeth 13,000 years ago and 72,000-year-old skulls of extinct animals.
When Colossal Biosciences announced its latest funding at a $10.2 billion valuation earlier this year, the company’s co-founder and CEO Ben Lamm told TechCrunch that he believed the startups were undervalued given actual scientific advances.
Given the general startup trends that exaggerate capabilities, it was not easy to charge Lamm’s claims at face value, especially as Colossal’s ambitious detension project for wool mammoths and Tasmanian tigers not completed until 2028.
Since then, the company has introduced a breakthrough that Colossal hoped to quell skeptics’ suspicions about scientific advances. Last month, the company announced that it had designed a mammoth-like fur mouse. The wool mouse produced a lot of excitement.
But clearly, with a disastrous wolf, the company has taken animal creation to a new level.
The company’s researchers compared ancient DNA to gray wolves and found that the species were genetically identical. Scientists then used CRISPR technology to edit grey wolf micelles with 20 genes that govern Dire Wolf’s appearance. The genetically modified cells transformed into embryos, which were embedded in a large dog, and then gave birth to a miserable wolf puppy.
As a result, the company claims that it is the first extinct species to be brought back to life.
Other scientists are skeptical
But many scientists have not worked for the huge question whether to represent the true species resurrection.
“This is an impressive feat of genome editing, but I don’t call it detension,” David Gold, a professor of paleontology at UC Davis, told TechCrunch. “They took grey wolves and mimic some of their genes, creating a kind of gray wolves/miserable wolves hybrid. These animals are not raised in packs by other miserable wolves, so they are not hunting in the wild.
The sentiment echoed in X by Alexander Young, a professor of statistical genetics at UCLA, writing “This seems very exaggerated.” In other words, it’s not a miserable wolf. It’s a grey wolf modified like a cooler wolf.
The edited grey wolf gene tells TechCrunch that it aims to alter external symptoms of Harvard University Corosal co-founder and co-founder of Corosal and professors of genetics at Harvard University and MIT:
He added that only 0.3% of the genes in the gray wolves had changed, and that the remaining 0.2% variation was ultimately left to change.
The reason Colossal didn’t use all of Dire Wolf’s recovered genes is because scientists were worried that these genes could cause hearing loss and blindness, Lamm said. “We felt that we couldn’t put that gene in it from an ethical perspective.”
We know that Remus, Romulus, and Khaleesi are not 100% identical to the animals that roamed the world until about 12,000 years ago, so can we call them the miserable wolves that were actually portrayed?
According to Gold, it is essentially a philosophical question. Another question is, why a miserable wolf?
Save the Red Wolf
The idea for recreating a tragic wolf came to Colossal by “pure accident,” Lamm said. “We got extra capital and saw additional seeds that we could work on.”
Dire’s wolves represent the ideal confluence of cash-rich startup factors that claim to be ethically conscious and have many entertainment-savvy investors on the cap table.
“We want to combine detension with conservation projects,” Lamb said.
A few years ago, Corosal Chief Animal Officers, Lamb and Matt James, learned from the North Carolina government that red wolves were almost extinct and fewer than 12 animals still roam the state. The state was trying to keep them from disappearing. The findings coincided with discussions with North Dakotan Indigenous groups about wolves’ sanctity in their culture. The company then brought George RR Martin, the author of the “Game of Thrones” book, as its advisor to the company.
“This has become this perfect Venn diagram. We can bring home culturally relevant species that our Indigenous partners care about, and we can use technology to save the red wolves,” Lamb said.
The technique that Colossal used to design its miserable wolves was also applied to clone four red wolves. The company plans to make more red wolves and eventually rebuild them, which can save their species from extinction and increase biodiversity.
As for the tragic wolves’ plans, Lamb said the company is likely to create five more animals so that they can live in the pack, as the wolves tend to do so. Colossal speaks to Indigenous communities about the possibility of regenerating the miserable wolves on the land. For now, company scientists and animal experts are spending time monitoring the behavior and health of their creations.
Is this really a business worth over $10 billion?
Then there’s a completely different kind of question. It’s a science that Colossal has demonstrated well enough to seduce investors and escalate their valuations. I know the time, but there’s a reason to believe that it can be done.
Lamm laid out several potential revenue streams for the company. Colossal has already spun two companies, and plans to spin off three more over the next two years. One is because of artificial uterine technology that may have fertility treatment applications.
The company may one day launch a claim with the government to help preserve endangered animals. (Colossal now offers maintenance technology free of charge, Lamm said.)
Finally, if a company revives and reintroduces any of its species into its ecosystem, it may be able to generate revenue through the sale of biodiversity credits, a market-based mechanism similar to carbon credits.