Colossal Biosciences claims to have brought back the dire wolf, and is now hard at work on its quest to resurrect several other species, including the woolly mammoth and the moa, a giant extinct bird. While that’s happening, the company is also pursuing a quieter, more near-term ambition: incubating a cadre of startups that can capitalize on Colossal’s technology and turn it into distinct businesses.
At this point, three companies have been publicly spun out of Colossal. The first was Form Bio, which has raised tens of millions to build an AI-enhanced platform meant to accelerate scientific research based on software originally developed inside Colossal. Another is Breaking, a plastic degradation startup that plans to scale the use of a microbe called X-32. The microbe can break down hydrocarbons, and the hope is to use genetic engineering to accelerate the process.
The third is Astromech, founded just last year and fresh off another $20 million raise; it’s building a genetics data platform that trains models on evolutionary and genetic data. The hope is that those models could eventually help predict threats to large biological systems. Examples, the company says, include understanding disease risk, modeling how populations respond to disease and climate change, and identifying at-risk ecosystems.
Thus far, Astromech says it has mapped 46 genes related to cellular maintenance, cancer resistance, and longevity. The company has now raised about $60 million in total.
Colossal has generated significant press for its quest to invent and resurrect niche species, including the now internet-famous, and very cute, woolly mice and dire wolf facsimiles. It has also generated intrigue for its progress developing new technologies that could take us to even more ambitious biological frontiers.
“We will have true dominion over life, where we can eradicate species that are invasive or we can bring back lost species,” Ben Lamm, the company’s CEO, has said. “And I think we’ll also have the ability to engineer plants—not just for food consumption, but you will be able to engineer plants with different types of proteins.”
Meanwhile, it’s worth keeping an eye on the network of side businesses Colossal is quietly cultivating. De-extinction captures the headlines, but the company is also moving quickly to plant the seeds of a biosciences empire, one with its hands in a range of biological platforms that could change not only our natural world but also our own health and even the future of our species.
These new entities may not go by the name Colossal, but they could end up becoming just as important.