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Colossal is a company that got its start with a splashy announcement about plans to do something that many scientists consider impossible with current technology, all in the service of creating a product with no clear market potential: the woolly mammoth. Since that time, the company has settled into a potentially viable business model and set its sights on a species where the biology is far more favorable: the thylacine, a marsupial predator that went extinct in the early 1900s.Today, the company is announcing a third de-extinction target and its return to the realm of awkward reproductive biology that will force the project to clear many technical hurdles: It hopes to bring back the dodo. ...In the case of the thylacine and mammoth, Colossal made the case that returning these keystone species to the habitats they once inhabited will alter the habitat significantly, changing which species can survive and thrive there. The company's argument for restoring the dodo is, in many ways, the converse: We will have to restore the ecosystem before a revived dodo can survive there."If [dodos] are to be able to reestablish thriving populations on Mauritius, it's going to require removing many of the invasive species that were introduced there. And in that way, this project will help to reinvigorate and revive these ecosystems," Shapiro said. "By making sure that dodos can survive there, we'll have to create a habitat that is also beneficial to other endemic Mauritian flora and fauna that maybe are struggling to survive because of the invasive species rather than because of the absence of dodos." ...
Colossal is using the backing of a surprising government partner to sequence the dodo bird’s genome using stem cell technology, the company says.The process for bringing the dodo back includes genome understanding, tissue cultures, and interspecies surrogacy. Here’s how it will work: The dodo recreation includes “interspecies germline transfer of pigeon PGCs into a surrogate chicken host.” The Nicobar pigeon, the dodo’s closest living relative, provides the host cells for genome engineering while the Rodrigues solitaire, the dodo’s closest genetic relative, adds additional insights. The chicken offers a foundation of avian genomics and editing. ... Colossal had hoped to make the dodo bird part of its early efforts, but additional rounds of funding, including from a venture capital firm funded by the Central Intelligence Agency, has now put the dodo into the official pipeline. ...
They spend so much time and money exploring of they could, they haven't thought about whether they should. What if they breed like rabbits, escape like COVID, and start stripping the terrain?
01-31-23Why a CIA-funded startup plans to bring back the dodo birdWith a fresh infusion of $150 million, Colossal aims to resurrect the most famous extinct bird—and in the process open a new frontier in genomics. By Alex PasternackThe last living dodo bird was seen on the island of Mauritius in 1662; soon it was extinct, largely the victim of the invasive species humans brought to the island. But the dodo may one day see a second life: Using its genome and that of its closest living relative, the genomics company Colossal plans to harness gene editing tools to bring the bird back from the dead. ...The moonshot technology has attracted some $225 million from investors, many of whom come far from the world of biology: Paris Hilton, Chris Hemsworth, Tony Robbins, the Winkelvoss twins, video game developer Richard Garriott, and Thomas Tull, the founder of Legendary Pictures and the U.S. Innovative Technology Fund, have all invested. So, too, has In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital arm.For those investors, at least for now, what’s most exciting about de-extinction is the hard path it takes to get there, and the benefits that may accrue along the way. Even without resurrecting extinct species, Colossal’s innovations in synthetic biology could be used to conserve existing wildlife. ...
Fast CompanyStill trying to figure how this has anything to do with the stated mission of the CIA. And why the heck the CIA has a venture capital arm.
What else should the CIA be doing with its illicit gains from foreign adventures? And how else to maintain an off-budget slush fund?
