Colossal Biosciences, known for its bizarre objective of resuscitating the woolly mammoth by 2028, claims stable progress. This is proof: genetically ingenious mice to have a mammoth type fur.
To design the woolly mouse, the company scientists found mouse mouse versions of mammoths, then used Crispr to edit mouse embryos, said Dr. Beth Shapiro, director of sciences of Colossal, told Techcrunch. Then these embryos were located in mothers of substitution mice.
The company says that the fur of the woolly mouse is of a color, a texture and a thickness that resemble the features of a mammoth.
Colossal Biosciences thinks that the woolly coat will allow its genetically designed mice to survive in cold climates. However, the company must first obtain the approval of The Institutional Committee for Animal Care and Use (Iacuc), which provides animal ethical and human research, before carrying out such experiences.
Shapiro said the company must test the cold mouse tolerance to validate if these genes would improve the adaptation of mammoth to cold environments.
The colossal approach to bring back the mammoth involves mapping all the genome of an extinguished woolly mammoth and comparing it to its nearest living parent, the Asian elephant.
Investors were impressed by the speed at which the company creates technologies, Ben Lamm, co-founder and CEO of Colossal BioSciences, told Techcrunch when the company announced a round of $ 200 million to an evaluation of $ 10.2 billion in January.
In addition to working on a woolly mammoth, the company aims to bring the Tiger Tasmanian and the Dodo bird.
But this 2028 objective may not be realistic. According to David Gold, professor of paleobiology at UC Davis, producing multiple changes in mice, but it is not as difficult as creating a woolly mammoth.
“It’s exciting to see the mice produce a gigantic type coat. But there are hundreds of differences between the DNA of an elephant and a mammoth, so there is a long way to go, “said Gold. He added that even if he believes that it will be possible to possibly recreate the woolly mammoth, there are a lot of technical obstacles to come.
However, Lamm calls colossal the creation of the woolly mouse a “moment of the watershed” for the mission of de-extinction of the company.
“The animals were born in good health and they had the exact phenotypes that we predicted,” said Lamm. “The only thing that was not intentional was the factor of worship. They are just cute than we had planned. »»
