Company aiming to resurrect woolly mammoth invests in new gene editing lab.
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The Dallas-based company trying to resurrect the woolly mammoth and other extinct species aims to advance its seemingly supernatural goals in a new lab.
Launched in 2021, Dallas-based Colossal Biosciences Inc. aims to reintroduce extinct species, some of which date back to the Ice Age, and in the process develop scientific breakthroughs that could help with modern challenges like environmental conservation, co-founder and CEO Ben Lamm said.
Its state-of-the-art, 45,000-square-foot genetics lab is slated to open around midyear in West Dallas, an area playing a starring role in the effort to make Dallas the next life sciences hot spot.
The new space will house equipment for genetic editing, embryology research and reconstructing ancient DNA.
Lamm’s company, which he formed with Harvard University scientist George Church, is now valued at $10.2 billion, the first Texas-founded and based startup to achieve such a high valuation. Earlier this year, the firm announced it raised $200 million in series C funding, which brought its total fundraising amount to about $435 million. High-profile investors have included firms such as Breyer Capital and In-Q-Tel, as well as individuals such as movie director Peter Jackson, actor Chris Hemsworth and retired football player Tom Brady.
In addition to the woolly mammoth, Colossal also wants to bring back the flightless dodo bird and the thylacine, otherwise known as the Tasmanian tiger. The new funding will be used to make progress on these three main de-extinction projects. Lamm said Colossal has plans in the future to add other species, both mammalian and avian, to its de-extinction efforts.
He added the company is already expanding its team in order to accelerate research and help these projects come to life. So far, genomes have been developed for all three species. The new lab in Dallas is also expected to support this expansion and advance the company’s mission of de-extinction.
“I think we’ve done a good job of communicating to the world, as well as to our investors, on the progress that we’ve made along those three species,” Lamm said. “And so it’s doubling that out and being able to expand the team so they can go faster. We also are putting money into our artificial womb team.”
Colossal currently operates two labs in Dallas — one is around 8,000 square feet and the other is just over 25,000 square feet. About 170 scientists work across its three labs in Dallas, Boston and Melbourne, Australia.
“We’re like any tech company — we’re continuing to grow and add people as we add species and new projects,” he said.
Born and raised in Austin, Lamm said he believes strongly in the potential for Dallas and Texas to become leaders in the biosciences world, thanks in large part to the supply of talent here.
“There’s a huge amount of incredibly diverse groups of really smart people in Texas,” he said.
He pointed to a central location and the ease of flying in and out of the Metroplex and said more people are starting to see Texas as the “innovation capital of the country.”
“I think more and more people will come here because no one wants to live in San Francisco,” he said.
How Colossal makes money
While bringing back the woolly mammoth and other extinct species could take several more years, research led by Colossal has already resulted in two spin-off companies. The first, Form Bio, launched in late 2022 as a computational biology platform that helps to accelerate research done by drug makers and get their products to market. The startup is valued at more than $100 million.
The second, Breaking, came about in April 2024. The plastic degradation business uses a newly discovered microbe called X-32 to effectively break down plastics. The startup aims to supercharge the microbe with genetic engineering in order to break down plastics even faster. It raised about $10.5 million in seed funding but a valuation for the company has not been disclosed.
“We’ve leveraged synthetic biology and directive evolution to essentially make that enzyme go faster,” Lamm said.
He explained the microbe produces an enzyme that “actually breaks down plastics” — actually breaking the chemical bonds in the material, not just turning it into smaller microplastics.
Lamm noted these projects have bolstered investors’ confidence in Colossal as examples of tangible applications from de-extinction research.
Despite not having a formal background in biology, Lamm said he has always had a passion for conservation and hard science. He hopes his company inspires the next generation to pursue similar work.
He said he’ll know his job is done when “we have a diverse population of thriving and interbreeding mammoths back in the tundra.”
