[News Inside Companies] 'Colossal Biosciences' Pushes for the Restoration of the Extinct Dodo Bird

The Mysterious Bird 'Dodo' Massacred Without Discrimination
Life Science Startup Restoration Project
Genetic Information Analysis Success... Investment Funds Pouring In

[Asia Economy Reporter Seunggon Han] The American life sciences startup 'Colossal Biosciences' (hereinafter Colossal) has attracted great attention by announcing plans to restore the extinct dodo bird. The dodo bird was known to be larger than a turkey, weighing about 23 kg. Its black beak, about 23 cm long, had a distinctive appearance, and the story of its slaughter by humans often appears in various fairy tales and movies such as the Harry Potter series and Alice in Wonderland. The dodo bird went extinct after Portuguese sailors landed on Mauritius in the Indian Ocean in the 16th century and slaughtered them indiscriminately.

Skeleton of the extinct dodo bird. Photo by EPA Yonhap News

According to CNN on the 31st of last month (local time), Colossal scientists are reportedly conducting a dodo bird restoration project based on genes (DNA) and other data. According to reports, the research team succeeded in analyzing the genetic sequence of the dodo bird using DNA extracted from a dodo specimen found at the Natural History Museum of Denmark. As expectations rose that the extinct dodo bird could be restored, Colossal attracted $150 million (about 184.7 billion KRW) in investment in just one day on January 31.

Colossal founder Professor George Church of Harvard Medical School's Department of Genetics is also famous for developing the world's first method to determine the base sequence of human genes in 1984. This method was used in the Human Genome Project, a research project to decode human genetic information that began in 1990. Professor Church founded Colossal on September 13, 2021, together with Ben Lamm, former CEO of the AI company Hypergiant.

Professor George Church, Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, USA (right), and entrepreneur Ben Rem. Photo by Colossal

Before the dodo bird revival project, Professor Church declared at the 183rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science held in Boston in February 2017 that he would create a mammoth-elephant hybrid embryo within two years using gene-editing technology. The plan is to secure well-preserved cells containing DNA from mammoth carcasses buried in the Siberian tundra and insert them into Asian elephant eggs, which share 99.6% of their DNA with mammoths, to create mammoth embryos. The revived mammoths would then be released freely in the Arctic to delay the thawing of permafrost (ground that remains below freezing temperature for two or more years throughout all seasons), where methane is trapped, ultimately slowing global warming. Since its establishment in 2021, Colossal Biosciences has raised a total of $225 million (about 277 billion KRW) in investment.