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Colossal Biosciences, known for its outlandish goal to resurrect the woolly mammoth by 2028, is claiming steady progress. It\u2019s evidence: Genetically engineering mice to have mammoth-like fur.<\/p>\n
To engineer the woolly mouse, the company\u2019s scientists found mouse versions of mammoth genes and then used CRISPR to edit mice embryos, Dr. Beth Shapiro, chief science officer at Colossal, told TechCrunch. Then, those embryos were implanted into surrogate mouse moms.<\/p>\n
The company says that the woolly mice\u2019s fur is of a color, texture and thickness that resembles a mammoth\u2019s traits.<\/p>\n
Colossal Biosciences believes the woolly coat will enable its genetically-engineered mice to survive in cold climates. Still, the company must first obtain approval from the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee<\/a> (IACUC), which ensures ethical and humane animal research, before conducting such experiments.<\/p>\n Shapiro said the company needs to test the engineered mice\u2019s cold tolerance to validate if those genes would improve the mammoth\u2019s adaptation to cold environments.<\/p>\n Colossal\u2019s approach to bringing back the mammoth involves mapping the entire genome of an extinct woolly mammoth<\/a> and comparing it with its closest living relative, the Asian Elephant.<\/p>\n Investors have been impressed with the speed at which the company is creating technologies, Ben Lamm, Colossal Biosciences\u2019 co-founder and CEO, told TechCrunch when the company announced a $200 million round at a $10.2 billion valuation<\/a> in January.<\/p>\n In addition to working on a woolly mammoth, the company aims to bring back the Tasmanian tiger and the dodo bird. \u00a0<\/p>\n But that 2028 goal might not be realistic. According to David Gold, a professor of Paleobiology at UC Davis, producing multiple mutations in mice\u00a0is hard, but it\u2019s not nearly as difficult as creating a woolly mammoth. <\/p>\n \u201cIt is exciting to see the mice produce a mammoth-like coat. But there are hundreds\u00a0of\u00a0differences between the DNA\u00a0of\u00a0an elephant and a mammoth, so there is a long way to go,\u201d Gold said. He added that while he believes that it will be possible to eventually re-create the woolly mammoth, there are a lot of technical hurdles ahead.<\/p>\n Still, Lamm calls Colossal\u2019s creation of the woolly mouse a \u201cwatershed moment\u201d for the company\u2019s de-extinction mission.<\/p>\n \u201cThe animals were born healthy, and they had the exact phenotypes that we predicted,\u201d Lamm said. \u201cThe only thing that was unintended was the adorability factor. They are just way cuter than we anticipated.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n