Colossal Biosciences Is Building a Biovault at Dubai’s Museum of the Future to Store 10,000 Species and Put Conservation Science on Public Display

Operating as both a genetic repository and a resource for future de-extinction work, the Dubai biovault is the first in a planned global network — with the 100 most imperiled species list still being finalized with the UAE.

Colossal Biosciences is launching a biovault at Dubai’s Museum of the Future to store millions of frozen tissue and cell samples from more than 10,000 species, including the 100 most imperiled globally and in the UAE, operating as both a genetic repository and a resource to support future de-extinction work, as the first in a planned global network of sites.

The list of the 100 most imperiled species has not yet been finalized. Ben Lamm compared the project to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault; animals, he said, need the same kind of long-scale preservation that exists for seeds. The museum setting is deliberate: Colossal plans living labs that put visitors in direct contact with conservation science as it happens.

This story is based on original reporting by Tom Page for CNN. Read the full feature on CNN → https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/04/science/colossal-dire-wolf-biovault-endangered-species-spc