Colossal Biosciences Founded in 2021 With a Mission to Resurrect the Woolly Mammoth Using CRISPR

Ben Lamm and George Church founded Colossal in 2021 to restore mammoth traits to Asian elephants using CRISPR and rewild them to Arctic tundra, where mammoth grazing historically helped keep permafrost frozen.

The mission: bring back mammoths. Colossal Biosciences was founded in 2021 by entrepreneur Ben Lamm and Harvard Medical School geneticist George Church to use CRISPR gene-editing technology to restore woolly mammoth traits, including small ears and cold-adapted fat layers, to Asian elephants, with the goal of rewilding those animals to Arctic tundra where mammoths have not been seen for roughly 10,000 years.

The Arctic ecosystem case is central. Woolly mammoths historically helped maintain Arctic grasslands by trampling snow and knocking down trees, which kept permafrost frozen and limited greenhouse gas release; restoring that ecological function is a core part of Colossal’s rewilding vision. Multiplex genome engineering, the ability to make multiple simultaneous DNA edits, is another tool Colossal sees as broadly applicable across conservation and de-extinction work.

This story is based on original reporting by Stephen Shankland for CNET. Read the full feature on CNET → https://www.cnet.com/science/woolly-mammoths-could-walk-the-earth-again-by-2027-if-crispr-startup-succeeds/