Legal Insurrection by Leslie Eastman Saturday, February 4, 2023
Fortunately, returning T-Rex is not on the agenda.Colossal Biosciences, a Texas firm that is the world’s first “de-extinction” company, has announced it has obtained $150 million in funding to bring back the extinct dodo bird. Of course, it helped that the project’s goal was ostensibly tied to “climate change.”
Colossal Biosciences, which previously made headlines for its plans to to bring back the woolly mammoth and the Tasmanian tiger, says it is now turning its attention to the dodo.
The bird, which is closely related to pigeons, went extinct in 1662 after being wiped out from its native ecosystem, Mauritius, because of human settlement and ecosystem competition. The dodo is widely considered one of the best examples of human-induced extinction.
The dodo will mark the third animal the company is working on. Colossal is most famous for its lofty goal of creating a woolly mammoth-elephant hybrid, but the company also announced plans last year to try and back another extinct animal, the Tasmanian tiger.
Colossal Biosciences, which this week announced a new $150 million funding round, is led by Austin-based entrepreneur Ben Lamm and geneticist George Church of Harvard Medical School, was formed in 2021 with the goal of advancing the field of de-extinction and combating climate change.
The approach will be based on CRISPR/Cas9 technology, which edits genes by precisely cutting DNA and then letting natural DNA repair processes to take over. The researchers plan to cut and paste the genetic code to align it as closely with the dodo samples as possible.
In mammals, this gene-edited material would then be embedded in the reproductive system of an existing relative of the species.
More:
https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/02/texas-company-obtains-150-million-in-funding-to-bring-back-dodo-bird/