The CEO of Colossal, a startup which aims to use genetic publishing techniques to bring extinct species, including the woolly mammoth, the audience assured in SXSW that the company does not intend to create a real Jurassic park – for fear that there is a doubt.
“Modern conservation does not work […] And we are going to need a “de-extinction” toolbox, “said Colossal CEO, Ben Lamm, during an interview on stage on Sunday in Austin, answering questions from the actor and member of the board of directors Joe Manganielllo. “I think we have a moral obligation and an ethical obligation to continue the technologies [that] defeat some of the things we [as a species] did. “”
Colossal works to bring back the dodo bird and thylacine, commonly called the Tasmanian tiger, as well as the woolly mammoth, added Lamm. But the de-extinction of dinosaurs would not be possible due to the lack of usable sources of DNOSAUR DNA.
Colossal, based in Dallas, founded in 2023 by Lamm and George Church, said that she wanted to have hybrid laine mammoths by 2028, which he hopes to reintroduce in the habitat of the Arctic Tundra. The company also runs a research project to hand over Tasmanian Tiger Joeys to its Australian Tasmanian and wider home after a period of captivity.
This vision resonated with investors. Colossal has collected hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital, and is currently estimated at $ 10.2 billion.
Colossal has transformed two companies focused on specific applications, a third of which has not yet been announced. Lamm also said he thought there were “billions of dollars” to do from the “reassessment” of species and carbon sequestration.
One of the recent large -scale projects of Colossal is the “woolly mouse” edited by genes, a kind of mouse with mutations inspired by woolly mammoths. The mice, which have a long, shaggy fur, with failed tones, have been developed using a mixture of mammoth and known mouse hair growth mutations.
Some experts have expressed the skepticism of the new species, arguing that the experience concerned more mouse genetics than a breakthrough in de-extinction.
Lamm, however, said that the project was validating colossal work on Wooly Mammoth’s detection.
“It showed us that, at the start, our changes that we learned for mammoth are the right changes,” said Lamm.
Lamm approached AI during the interview, saying that he thought that the combination of access to computers, AI and synthetic biology will be the most “dangerous” ensemble of technologies that the world has seen. But he also painted an idealistic image of the future, predicting that the progress of synthetic biology in particular will lead to remedies against cancer, means of eliminating plastics from the oceans and the general availability of clean water.
“We will have real domination over life, where we can eradicate invasive species or we can bring lost species,” said Lamm, “and I think we will also have the engineering capacity of plants – not only for food consumption, but you can design plants with different types of protein.”
Lamm also said that he foresee that humanity “would reach the speed of escape from longevity” over the next 20 years, adding years to average human life expectancy and making immortality a theoretical possibility.
Beyond human longevity, Lamm has declared that the de-extinction may require a “project on the scale of the Manhattan project” to “save” genetic species, said Lamm-a project to save species specifically in “organic vaults” to create rod and egg cells. Lamm said that he had spoken to “a country that seems excited about this” without naming names.
With regard to work with governments, Lamm has mentioned that Colossal meets “quarterly” with American government agencies and that the American government has invested in the colossal – probably via subsidies.
