The quest for dodo’s de-extinction has gathered steam again.
Colossal Biosciences has announced a significant breakthrough in its attempts to bring the flightless bird back to life, 300 years after it became extinct. The Texas-based company has grown pigeon primordial cells for the first time; they are also regarded as precursor cells to sperm and eggs.
Announcing this breakthrough on Wednesday, the biotech firm also revealed that they have developed gene-edited chickens, which will act as surrogates for the dodos. Scientists will inject these chickens with special cells from Nicobar pigeons – the dodo’s closest relatives.
With gene edits, Colossal believes these chickens could one day breed dodos.
“This is the really important step for the dodo project, but also for bird conservation, more broadly,” said Beth Shapiro, Colossal’s chief science officer.
“This was a negating step for the dodo project. We needed this to move on, and now that we have it, really, we’re off and running,” he stated.
The process of resurrection
After growing the primordial germ cells, the Colossal scientists plan to edit these with dodo-specific genes. The edited cells will then be placed into sterile chicken embryos.
When these chickens breed, their offspring could produce eggs and sperm carrying dodo traits. Over generations, this process could yield living birds that resemble the long-extinct dodo.
Ben Lamm, Colossal’s chief executive, revealed how much time it would be before the world sees the results of their experiment.
“Rough ballpark, we think it’s still five to seven years out, but it’s not 20 years out,” he said.
Colossal is working with wildlife groups to identify safe, rat-free sites in Mauritius where the species could breathe again.
A timeline for the project
The genetic engineering company made headlines when it bagged a $150 million grant in 2023 to support its de-extinction efforts. The current progress collides with an additional $120 million funding extension, bringing Colossal’s total amount to $555 million in funding.
And, these efforts aren’t limited only to the dodos.
In the past, Colossal has also revealed plans to revive other species of extinct animals like the Tasmanian tiger, New Zealand’s giant moa, and woolly mammoths.
Earlier in April this year, Colossal claimed to have brought dire wolves out of extinction using a novel iterative genome assembly method. After embarking on the quest to bring back dodos, the company also teamed up with the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation to create native habitats in which the bird survived before its extinction.
Is ‘de-extinction’ possible?
It’s hard to believe something dead centuries ago could be brought back alive. Colossal’s researchers have faced a fair amount of criticism for their efforts, and they don’t exactly shy away from it either.
While critics believe it’s not possible to resurrect an extinct animal, the company has already cleared the air around this debate. It has said that the experiments don’t aim to bring back something that’s 100 percent genetically identical to the extinct species, but only to create copies with their key traits.
While that sounds believable, other risks are involved regarding the protection of the species used for such experiments, according to conservationists. It remains to be seen if Colossal can actually succeed and have the world in awe of science yet again.
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