Colossal Biosciences co-founder and CEO Ben Lamm is in Austin for South by Southwest 2025 to discuss how the company is turning “science fiction to science fact” with reality TV host Joe Manganiello.
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The company first unveiled its plan to “de-extinct” the woolly mammoth using genetic editing and surrogacy and return it to the tundra equipped with the biological traits that will allow it to thrive into the future. A big step in making that vision a reality, which went viral this week, was the birth of two “woolly mice” that the team at Colossal did experimental gene editing on.
The Daily Dot sat down with Lamm ahead of the discussion to learn more about how he hopes the company’s technology will one day restore extinct species and support conservation efforts across the globe.
Daily Dot: How did this idea come about?
Ben Lamm: It really wasn’t my idea. My co-founder is George Church, who is arguably the father of synthetic biology. And he had been working for years to understand the mammoth genome. All of this next-gen rewrite technology was available. When I met George, I actually reached out to talk to him about synthetic biology and software.
I asked him, ‘If you had one project with unlimited capital, what would it be and why?’ Without hesitation, he said, ‘I want to bring back the woolly mammoth, reintroduce it back to the tundra, help the ecosystem, as well as build technologies for human health care and conservation.’ And then the call was over. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is amazing. I really, really want to do this. And I think I can help him build this company.’ A week later, I was in his lab, and then after that, we were off to the races.
DD: So it really does sound like a situation where passion and interest is meeting the evolution of technology.
BL: 100%. Exactly. A lot of people focus on genome engineering. And I would argue that Colossal is probably the most advanced synthetic biology company in the world. We are doing genome engineering at a scale that no one else has ever done. I think people float to that which is great. But what people don’t realize is there is so much that goes into it from outside the lab.
We work with governments, indigenous peoples groups, private landowners, colleges. We’re actually going out and doing site surveys, taking field samples, and whatnot.
On the other side of that, there’s this insane movement that’s happening with kids. Kids are obsessed with this. Every week, we get classrooms of kids and individual parents who send us letters. Or they’ll send us, ‘We had all our kids draw woolly mammoths. We just want you to know we’re supporting you.’ We’ve had teachers say, ‘We can’t get our kids to sit quiet for five minutes, and when we’re talking about this, they’re quiet for an hour.’
DD: It’s one of those enduring memories from your primary science class education. And then, of course, there’s Jurassic Park…
BL: Jurassic Park did a lot of good in terms of educating people that there was this thing called DNA and we as humanity can edit it and produce stuff because of those edits.
DD: What is your goal for South by Southwest 2025?
BL: I feel like when you do anything this bold you’ve got a responsibility to be transparent and educate. Our job is to have conversations like this and educate people on what we’re doing. And then let them ask, what questions does this raise for them? And have that dialogue.
DD: What does success for the company look like?
BL: I think for us to be successful is three-fold. One is bringing back extinct species and successfully putting them back into large ecological preserves where they can have a positive impact on the environment. As well as having a halo effect of conservation with that. Number two, I think advancing genome engineering for both conservation and human healthcare to a level of what we’d all dreamed of. And the third is we’ve really been pushing this concept of biovaults. There isn’t this true backup like there is with a seed vault for animals. I think we need to continue to do existing conservation.
But we know that existing conservation, while it works, it’s not working at the speed at which we’re eradicating species and changing the planet. So we need new tools. And also in the meantime we should be bio banking, bringing in bio vaults, all the tissue and cell samples from all these different critically endangered and keystone species. I believe it’s better to have a good de-extinction toolkit and not need it, than need a de-extinction toolkit and not have it. So we actually can save species and back them up. I’m encouraging existing conservation. This is an ‘and’ conversation—not an ‘or.’
What sometimes people don’t realize is making a choice to do this is a choice. Choosing not to do this is also a choice. We know that the existing models for biodiversity loss in this sixth mass extinction that we’re in is 50% between now and 2050. In 25 years. So we know we need new things. Colossal isn’t going to solve it. I just want to be one thread of a big tapestry that’s trying to solve this problem.
DD: Do you think it’s going to be difficult to bring people around to your way of thinking?
BL: When you do big, bold things, it’s scary. There was a season where seat belts were scary. Back in the day, car manufacturers [thought] it was going to imply that cars are scary and dangerous. Even technologies that make people safer, at the time, seem scary. I think it’s important to note that the one constant about change is that it’s inevitable. The technologies for genome engineering are here, the technologies for [artificial intelligence] are here, the technologies for access to compute are here.
And that combination, I think, is going to usher in this synthetic biology revolution where we can really do directed evolution, accelerated evolution, and make changes to life, both animal and plant. And even human, from a longevity perspective. That would be massively transformative. I’m an optimist, so I don’t fall into some of the dystopian views of some of the sci-fi movies we watch. I kind of believe it’s all going to work out for good in the end.
DD: So, any plans to get into the pet business with a line of woolly mice?
BL: Kids and parents are pinging us left and right. To buy them, adopt them. We’ve been offered temporary adoption from schools. It’s not only a different business, it’s just not anywhere core to our mission. If someone else went and made woolly mice and got people interested in science—I wouldn’t care. But that’s just not what we do.
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