Colossal Foundation Expands Genetic Rescue and De-Extinction Programs Across Six Continents

A new $50 million raise supports more than 40 species across six continents, with milestones including ghost wolf cloning, Yellowstone acoustic monitoring, amphibian immune engineering, and a breakthrough in quoll genetic rescue.

The Colossal Foundation doubled down. A new $50 million raise brought total funding to $100 million, supporting more than 40 species across six continents; milestones from the year include four cloned ghost wolves carrying up to 72% red wolf ancestry, a complete red wolf reference genome, and 48 acoustic sensors deployed across Yellowstone that captured more than 7,000 wolf howling events across 200,000 hours of audio.

The Foundation committed $3 million to a nanobody-based genetic rescue effort with the University of Melbourne, using alpaca immune system technology to engineer innate immunity against the chytrid fungus, which has driven nearly 100 amphibian species to extinction. In quoll conservation, a single genetic change conferring cane toad toxin resistance was identified; the first induced pluripotent stem cell line for the species was also produced.

This story is based on original reporting by Micah Hanks for The Debrief. Read the full feature on The Debrief → https://thedebrief.org/colossal-foundation-expands-its-ambitious-genetic-rescue-and-de-extinction-programs-to-save-endangered-species/