Bringing Back Extinct Animals Could Unlock the Future of Human Medicine
Finn's Take· TL;DR- Colossal Biosciences uses ancient DNA and AI to resurrect extinct species like woolly mammoths and dire wolves, advancing genetic engineering applicable to human medicine.
- De-extinction research enables multiplex genome editing techniques that could treat aging, genetic diseases, and improve human healthspan and longevity.
- Engineered extinct species may help conserve endangered animals, combat climate change through ecosystem restoration, and accelerate pharmaceutical and agricultural breakthroughs.
More Than Just Dinosaur Dreams
When most people hear about a company trying to bring back dire wolves and woolly mammoths, their minds jump to Jurassic Park — and the chaos that followed. But Colossal Biosciences CEO Ben Lamm wants you to think bigger. Lamm has argued that synthetic biology work aimed at bringing back extinct species will ultimately drive major advancements in human healthcare, conservation, and programmable life. The science of resurrection, it turns out, may have as much to do with our future as it does with the ancient past.
Colossal Biosciences is on a mission to revive extinct species, and the company has already created three genetically engineered dire wolf pups while actively working on the woolly mammoth. The process of creating the wolf pups involved taking genetic material from a skull and a tooth that were tens of hundreds of years old. Using AI models, Colossal used the ancient DNA to reconstruct the dire wolf genome and map it to its closest living relative, the gray wolf. The team then created embryos by editing the cells of modern gray wolves.
From Ancient DNA to Modern Medicine
The woolly mouse project represents significant progress in genetic engineering, not just for de-extinction but also potentially for human health and longevity. By successfully introducing multiple mammoth-like traits into mice, Colossal has demonstrated the power of multiplex genome editing, a technique that can also be applied to human health, particularly in addressing complex, multi-gene aging processes.
Lamm has said that while Colossal is currently focused on applying its technology to animal species, "we believe the advancements made through our research have the potential to impact human healthcare in the future, among those areas of application are healthspan and longevity research." Lamm detailed how DNA synthesis breakthroughs could impact everything from microbes and ocean-bound plastics to gene therapies, targeted drug delivery for humans, and the eradication of genetic diseases.
A company spun off from Colossal, called Astromech, is pushing into what Lamm called "convergent evolution" — studying what causes species that are similar in nearly every way to have different immunities or other health issues, such as why elephants get cancer at a fraction of the rate humans do. That research could be leveraged to solve human healthcare challenges or pandemic responses.
Rewilding the Planet Along the Way
Working on de-extinction, says Colossal's Chief Science Officer Beth Shapiro, "is helping us keep more existing species alive." Lessons from the company's work with the dire wolves are now being used to expand the population of red wolves, an existing species now just 20 animals shy of total extinction. Teams working on de-extincting the woolly mammoth are learning how to help today's elephants, and ourselves, to become better able to survive the warming climate.
On the ecological front, engineered woolly mammoths could help combat climate change by stomping down high-altitude arctic snow cover to keep soil frozen and knocking down heat-absorbing trees to convert forests into grasslands. Lamm has said the company is aiming for a woolly mammoth birth in the 2030s. He has also theorized that efforts around DNA synthesis could even lead to developing crops or trees that grow faster.
A Billion-Dollar Bet on the Impossible
Not everyone is a believer. Skeptics have pointed out that the dire wolf project did not truly de-extinct the species, but rather engineered a modified gray wolf — a critique Lamm dismissed as a semantic argument that misses the forest for the trees. Not everyone is supportive of Colossal's work, and some critics say that de-extincting could negatively disrupt today's animal communities.
Colossal is currently in talks to raise new money at a valuation of at least $20 billion — up from $10.2 billion in early 2025. Investors believe its work could be foundational in pharmaceuticals, climate change reversal, and longevity, and Lamm has said he expects to create an artificial womb for mammals within a year, opening the door to human usage. Whether you see Colossal as visionary science or expensive spectacle, the genetic tools being forged in its labs are already reshaping what medicine — and life itself — might look like in the decades ahead.