Can extinct animals be resurrected? Some people are going to try it. They are going to use CRISPR gene editing to breed a living mammoth, yes, the kind in "Ice Age". This bold project comparable to the Apollo plan has received $15 million in seed round financing.
Is it possible to bring the mammoth in "Ice Age" to life?
A company called Colossal said that we want to try. They plan to use gene editing to create a living, breathing mammoth.
The company was co-founded by maverick geneticist George Church (George Church) and entrepreneur (Ben Lamm), aiming to use CRISPR to edit the genome of an existing Asian elephant to recreate this Asian elephant.
In this sense, this creature is very similar to a mammoth, but in fact it is more like a hybrid of an elephant and a mammoth.
In fact, Church's laboratory has been advancing this project for many years. The difference is that now, Church and Ram have successfully convinced investors that this crazy project to revive the mammoth can really come true.
Today, Colossal announced the start of the project and received a $15 million seed round led by the former CEO of Legendary Entertainment Company Thomas Tull (Thomas Tull).
This round of financing includes funding from Breyer Capital, Draper Associates, Animal Capital, At One Ventures, Jazz Ventures, Jeff Wilke, Bold Capital, Global Space Ventures, Climate Capital, Winklevoss Capital, Liquid2 Ventures, Capital Factory, Tony Robbins, and First Light Capital invest.
"This project may completely change our understanding of modern genetics, and at the same time develop innovative technologies, not only may it return species that have disappeared, but will also promote the development of the entire industry," Tony Robbins said. "I am proud to be involved in this investment."
Ram turned out to be the founder of AI company Hypergiant. He founded, established and sold three companies: Conversable (acquired by LivePerson), Chaotic Moon Studios (acquired by Accenture) and Team Chaos (acquired by Zynga).
As for Church, he is a man in the biological industry known for his boldness and pioneering.
As early as the 1980s, Church created the first direct genome sequencing method, and then participated in the launch of the human genome project. Now he leads synthetic biology work at the Wyss Institute, focusing on the synthesis of entire genes and genomes.
At present, although CRISPR gene editing technology has just entered the human trial stage, the usual editing target is a single disease-causing gene, but Church's projects often consider larger goals. In 2015, Church's team edited 62 genes in pig embryos (which set a record at the time) with the goal of creating organs that can be used for human transplantation.
Later, from this project, a company eGenesis was born, dedicated to the research of pig organs that can be used for human transplantation. According to Church's initial prediction, pig organs can be used for human transplantation in 2019, but until now, this goal has not been achieved. However, eGenesis is now conducting preclinical experiments on monkeys.
In 2017, his laboratory at Harvard University reported that he had successfully added 45 genes to the genome of the Asian elephant in an attempt to "resurrect" the mammoth.
Ram said: "Our goal is not just to bring the mammoth back to life, it is a feat in itself." He said. "This is to successfully rewild mammoths. He said the company's plan is to provide a set of tools that can prevent species from extinction or save those critically endangered species."
Bigger goal: save endangered species
Currently, approximately 1 million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction. If the Colossal project is successful, it means that it has been developed to resurrect the recently extinct creatures, and even Lamm's so-called "gene rescue" can be implemented to prevent extinction.
"Gene rescue" is the process of increasing genetic diversity in endangered populations through gene editing. In some cases, it is even possible to clone new individuals to create a broader gene pool (provided that the clones are sufficiently different from the existing animals).
There is already some evidence that this is possible. In February 2021, a black-footed ferret named Elizabeth Ann became the first cloned endangered species native to North America. She successfully cloned DNA from frozen tissue samples collected in 1988.
Bringing extinct animals back to life may help cope with the consequences of climate change, but it will not solve the fundamental problem. As long as the human drivers of climate change still exist, the newborn organisms that were previously extinct due to climate change will not have much hope of survival; in fact, climate fluctuations are one of the reasons for the extinction of megafauna in the first place.
Moreover, the rewilding of extinct species may bring serious adverse consequences to the ecosystem, such as spreading new diseases, squeezing the space of existing species, changing the actual situation of the ecosystem, etc. (After all, elephants can be called "ecosystems" engineer").
From Ram's perspective, this huge project resembles a moon landing plan. In order to achieve the ultimate goal, they must develop specialized other intermediate technologies, and these intermediate technologies can be licensed or sold to potential buyers.
"This project is very similar to the real moon landing plan-the Apollo project. When the Apollo project was carried out, a series of new technologies were born during the period. Such as GPS, Internet and semiconductor technology. All these technologies are very easy to realize. "He said.
In short, this "Mammoth Resurrection" project is more like an incubator for the development of a large amount of intellectual property. Ram pointed out that this may include artificial uterus and other applications based on CRISPR. Many of these projects will still face huge scientific obstacles-the existing artificial uterus project has not even entered the human test stage-but overcoming these obstacles may be easier to achieve than the big goal of resurrecting the mammoth.
Good technology must be known to my grandma, just like NASA
Although Ram said that there is no company that can be directly compared with Colossal, he still mentioned the names of several large companies and organizations in the space industry, Blue Origin, SpaceX, and especially NASA—"I think NASA is the best in the history of the United States. Trademark."
"If you look at SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin, my 91-year-old grandma knows that these people went to space. Which companies have been launching rockets and satellites for decades? No one cares. NASA and SpaceX are attracting The public’s attention has been done very well," he said.
Musk's plan to send humans to Mars is the same. Up to now, Starship has not broken through the prototype test flight stage. But everyone knows that Musk intends to send people to Mars in the future.
Ram believes that great ideas will attract the attention of the public. On the other hand, in the process of realizing this idea, a large number of intellectual property inventions and technologies will be produced, so that investors can also feel at ease.
These ideas or goals are indeed a bit sci-fi, but this may be the right way.
This is not to say that the goal of "resurrecting the mammoth" is nowhere in sight. Ram said the funding should be enough to help develop a viable mammoth embryo. Their goal is to breed the first small mammoths in the next 4 to 6 years.
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