The Relationship Between De-Extinction and Conservation

De-Extinction is Conservation.

For much of its short history, the idea of bringing extinct species back to life was treated as philosophically separate from — or even in tension with — protecting living ones. We’ve never accepted that framing. The technologies we build to resurrect lost species flow directly into the hands of conservationists working with species alive today, and the results are already measurable.

What Is Functional De-Extinction?

Functional de-extinction is the process of generating an organism that both resembles and is genetically similar to an extinct species by resurrecting its lost lineage of core genes, engineering natural resistances, and enhancing adaptability that will allow it to thrive in today’s environment of climate change, dwindling resources, disease, and human interference.

The IUCN Species Survival Commission defines de-extinction as “the process of creating an organism that resembles an extinct species.” Our work meets and exceeds that standard. Every de-extinction effort we undertake is also a conservation technology platform in its own right.

Tools Built Once, Used Everywhere

Every de-extinction effort we run is designed to generate reusable tools. The scientific infrastructure built to resurrect one species becomes a toolkit the broader conservation community can deploy immediately, at no cost.

“Everything that we make that has an application to conservation, anyone in the world can use to help save animals. They don’t pay us a dime. It’s all open source, it’s all free,” said Ben Lamm, co-founder and CEO of Colossal Biosciences.

The research that produced living dire wolves yielded advances in ancient DNA genome reconstruction, genotype-to-phenotype prediction, and multiplex gene editing tools. The protocols for canid genomics and deep sequencing data generated during this work are publicly available. The work also produced a novel method for cloning mammals from a standard blood draw — a technique we’ve since applied to endangered species conservation with immediate results.

The Red “Ghost” Wolf

The American red wolf is the world’s most endangered canid. Fewer than 30 remain in the wild, and the roughly 300 under managed care all descend from only 12 founding individuals. That genetic bottleneck leaves the species acutely vulnerable to disease and inbreeding.

Red “ghost” wolves, unique canids found along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana, carry the genomic legacy of the pre-extinction red wolf. Identified through the research of Dr. Bridgett vonHoldt of Princeton University and Dr. Kristin Brzeski of Michigan Technological University, these animals carry red wolf ancestry ranging from 69 to 72%.

The four red “ghost” wolf pups — Neka Kayda (“Ghost Daughter” in the Karankawa language), Ash, Blaze, and Cinder — were produced using cloning techniques refined through our de-extinction work. Colossal has developed the first method of mammalian cloning from blood, removing the need for surgical collection. Traditional conservation cloning has long been limited by invasive biopsies, an approach that is often unsafe and unethical for endangered species.

“The technologies developed on the path to the dire wolf are already opening up new opportunities to rescue critically endangered canids,” said Matt James, chief animal officer and executive director of the Colossal Foundation. “The creation of less-invasive sampling tools allows for the conservation community to ramp up biobanking efforts of those species on the brink.”

Biobanking

One of conservation’s most persistent vulnerabilities is the loss of genetic material before any intervention can arrive. The Colossal BioVault addresses this directly: a globally distributed biobanking network designed to collect, preserve, and share viable tissue samples representing more than 10,000 species — starting with the 100 most imperiled species not currently banked anywhere else — with cell lines stored inside the countries where target species live. The first Colossal BioVault will be established in collaboration with the UAE and housed in Dubai’s Museum of the Future.

Active Conservation Partnerships

Our technology work extends across species and continents. With more than 55 active conservation partnerships across six continents, we’ve applied these tools to problems ranging from viral disease to genetic collapse.

In partnership with Baylor College of Medicine, the Colossal Foundation helped develop the world’s first mRNA vaccine for Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus, a leading cause of death in young Asian elephants. Two vaccinated elephants at the Cincinnati Zoo — Sanjay and Kabir — were naturally exposed to the virus in spring 2025 and recovered fully, the first real-world evidence of vaccine efficacy. We’re also the exclusive de-extinction partner for the BioRescue project working to prevent the extinction of the northern white rhino, and we’re supporting research to restore lost immune diversity in the pink pigeon, a species that recovered from fewer than 10 individuals in the 1980s but now faces a severe genetic bottleneck across its entire population.

IUCN Alignment

We’ve formally documented the alignment of our work with the IUCN SSC’s 2016 Guiding Principles, positioning each project as “an additive conservation tool rather than a technological substitute for traditional protection measures.” Funding for de-extinction work is drawn from private technology development capital that has not been diverted from existing wildlife recovery budgets.

“These technologies will likely transform the conservation of critically endangered species that still exist,” said Barney Long, Ph.D., senior director of conservation strategy at Re:Wild. “From restoring lost genes into small, inbred populations to inserting disease resistance into imperiled species, the genetic technologies being developed by Colossal have immense potential to greatly speed up the recovery of species on the brink of extinction.” 

De-extinction and conservation aren’t competing priorities. At Colossal, they’re the same work.