Colossal CEO Ben Lamm on Bringing Back the Dire Wolf and Advancing Synthetic Biology

The Dire Wolf Project

• 💡 Colossal Biosciences is a de-extinction and species preservation company, aiming to develop new tools to combat biodiversity loss.
• 🐺 The decision to prioritize the dire wolf was influenced by indigenous partners and the government, who advocated for focusing on an American species.
• 🤝 Colossal collaborated with the MHA Nation, who believe the dire wolf is connected to their oral traditions, and also learned about the critically endangered red wolf.
• 🏞️ The reintroduced dire wolves are housed on a secure ecological preserve, with any future rewilding to be done in collaboration with government and tribal entities.

Synthetic Biology and Global Competition

• 🧬 Synthetic biology, which uses AI and genome editing, is considered a critical technology comparable to space and defense technologies.
• ⚠️ Adversarial nations, particularly China, are actively advancing these technologies with stated goals of engineering enhanced humans, raising significant ethical concerns.
• 🇺🇸 Colossal, as an American company working with the federal government, emphasizes the need for the U.S. to lead in this field to counter potential threats.
• 🔬 The company utilizes advanced technologies to study extinct species, such as understanding the genetic traits that made the dire wolf larger and stronger, with potential applications for engineering its closest living relative, the grey wolf.

Ethical Considerations and Future Applications

• ⚖️ The distinction between directed evolution and "playing God" is framed from an ecosystem perspective, where human actions like eradicating species are already forms of "playing God"; de-extinction tools offer a way to balance progress and protection.
• 🧬 Colossal's work on multiplex editing (editing multiple parts of the genome simultaneously) has significant potential for curing inherited human diseases, including predispositions to cancer and Alzheimer's.
• 🤖 AI plays a crucial role in Colossal's work, with approximately 30% of their efforts being AI-dependent, a figure expected to grow exponentially.
• 📚 The company aims to inspire interest in science among children and educators through de-extinction projects, fostering excitement for scientific exploration and conservation.

Next Steps and Species

• 🥚 Colossal is nearing a significant breakthrough for the dodo project and has made updates on the Tasmanian tiger.
• 🐺 The dire wolves, named Romulus and Remus, are named after mythological figures, with hopes that their story will not repeat the historical conflict between the figures.
• 🌍 The extinction of species like the dire wolf is attributed to both anthropological effects and potential Younger Dryas cooling period events, highlighting the complex factors involved.