Colossal Biosciences uses AI to recreate dire wolf embryos, plans mammoth birth

Colossal Biosciences is using AI models and gene-editing tools, including CRISPR, a technology that lets scientists edit DNA, to try to bring back extinct species, according to Times of India and CNBC. The company recreated dire wolf embryos by combining DNA from ancient fossils with gray wolf cells, Times of India reported. Three pups, named Romulus, Remus and Khaleesi, have been born to domestic dogs used as surrogate mothers, according to CNBC.

CNBC reported that the process used genetic material taken from a skull and a tooth. Using AI models, Colossal reconstructed the dire wolf genome, its full set of DNA, and mapped it to its closest living relative, the gray wolf, CNBC reported. The team then created embryos by editing the cells of modern gray wolves.

CNBC's Julia Boorstin said skeptics argue the company did not really de-extinct a dire wolf, but created a genetically modified gray wolf. Lamm called this a "semantic argument" that "misses the forest for the trees." He said gray wolves are "just genetically modified dire wolves" that were changed "by nature or God or however you want to classify it."

The woolly mammoth project uses a similar process and involves genetically modifying an Asian elephant, according to CNBC. Lamm told Time in August that the company is aiming for a woolly mammoth birth in the 2030s, while Times of India reported plans to birth woolly mammoths within the next decade. Times of India reported the company aims for ecological benefits including preservation of Arctic permafrost, and CNBC reported that engineered woolly mammoths could help fight climate change by stomping down snow cover in high-altitude arctic regions.

Lamm said he became interested in the work after a 2019 meeting with Harvard geneticist George Church, whom Lamm called "arguably the father of synthetic biology." Church, who initiated the Personal Genome Project, had been dreaming about bringing back the woolly mammoth for decades, he told CNBC in 2021. Lamm said Church had a vision to use CRISPR and related tools to bring back extinct species, apply some of those technologies to human healthcare, and build a "programmable life model" for many uses on Earth.

Besides the dire wolf and woolly mammoth, Colossal is working to genetically engineer the dodo bird, the Tasmanian tiger and a giant bird called a moa, CNBC reported. CNBC also reported that bringing back dinosaurs is impossible because viable dinosaur DNA is no longer available. Lamm told Boorstin it is "highly likely in the next coming year or two" that the company will "deliver extinct species back to Earth."