Colossal’s landmark de-extinction project will be the resurrection of the Woolly Mammoth - or more specifically a cold-resistant elephant with all of the core biological traits of the Woolly Mammoth. It will walk like a Woolly Mammoth, look like one, sound like one, but most importantly it will be able to inhabit the same ecosystem previously abandoned by the Mammoth’s extinction.

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And this core value cannot be overstated:

The Woolly Mammoth is a vital defender of the earth.

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10 CORE GOALS FOR REVIVING THE MAMMOTH:

1. To decelerate melting of the arctic permafrost.

2. To prevent the emission of greenhouse gases trapped within the permafrost layer - up to 600 million tons of net carbon annually.

3. To revert now-overshrubbed forests back into natural arctic grasslands, which help with carbon emissions.

4. To restore the Mammoth Steppe.

5. To foster an ecosystem that can maintain its own defenses against climate change.

6. To understand the dominant traits among cold-resistant genomes.

7. To save modern elephants from extinction.

8. To establish a proven link between genetic sciences and climate change.

9. To equip nature with a resilience against humanity's adverse effects on vital ecosystems.

10. To drive advancements in multiplex CRISPR editing.

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Engineering a new wave of wild.

Combining the science of genetics with the business of discovery, we endeavor to jumpstart nature’s ancestral heartbeat. To see the Woolly Mammoth thunder upon tundra once again. To advance the economies of biology and healing through genetics. To make humanity more human. And to reawaken the lost wilds of Earth. So we, and our planet, can breathe easier.

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ON THE PATH TO DE-EXTINCTION

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As we progress in our scientific journey, Colossal will pioneer revolutionary new software, hardware and wetware solutions. Each with the power to solve critical problems for all life on Earth. Including humans.

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01 software

Cutting edge software tools that empower scientists to advance and accelerate their discoveries. Our first new platform, Form Bio, focuses on computational biology and bioinformatics.

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02 hardware

Breakthrough hardware solutions that enable researchers and institutions to revolutionize the lab environment.

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03 wetware

Radical new technologies that marry biological function with state of the art AI and computing systems.

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These breakthroughs will create new opportunities that reach far beyond our
de-extinction endeavors.

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Many of the powerful technologies we’re developing today hold the potential to fundamentally reshape how the world thinks about and goes about global conservation, advancing human health and solving the most pressing challenges in life sciences. Some will impact the efficiency and availability of everyday medicine. While others may contribute to the eradications of disease and the acceleration of possibility through genetics.

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Leading advancements in genetic engineering.

What exactly is genetic engineering? Why is it so important? And how are we applying it? Read below to better your understanding of this complex field of study.

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Genetic Engineering: Basics

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Genetic engineering is best defined as the act of modifying an organism’s DNA sequence with the use of biotechnology. Genetic engineering can be used for editing a single base pair of DNA, multiple base pairs of DNA (a sequence), to editing entire genomes by either up-regulating, down-regulating, knocking-in or knocking-out genes (e.g. insertion, deletion or replacement of specific genetic material).

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There are numerous techniques for genetic engineering, with the most common and widely used technique being CRISPR.

At Colossal, we currently focus on the application and advancement of CRISPR for the purposes of de-extinction and climate change reversal.

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Helping The World Heal

Genetic engineering is used to help humanity advance treatments for genetic disorders, gene therapies, DNA fingerprinting, vaccines and pharmaceutical products. Further applications include sustainable plant and animal food production, diagnosing diseases and conditions, medical treatment improvement, as well as production of vaccines and other useful drugs.

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Genetic engineering applications of animals include advancing human health, enhancing food production, reducing environmental impact, optimizing animal health and welfare and production of cutting edge industrial applications. Other world-bettering uses include eradicating malaria, organ donorship, and of course, the slowing of and reversal of the extinction of species.

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“Working toward a Colossal achievement like bringing back an extinct species is the kind of thing that our brightest minds want to do. Colossal's ambition is an inspiring example of what can be done, and the technological by-products of doing it will invigorate the industry of generic engineering. I am excited to see this happen as fast as possible, because a new generation of bright minds, using this new technology, can do something about the ecological crisis they are inheriting. Our unbridled exploitation of nature has fought a war with evolution, and the natural world doesn’t have a chance without us. Precision genetic engineering can begin to reverse this damage, by creating bacteria that eat plastic, corals that are resilient to heat, and restoring ecological balance in threatened habitats.”

TOM GRUBER

Founder and creator of Siri, product designer and Stanford AI researcher

[ Colossal Executive Advisory Board Member ]

 

By Definition

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Cell

Cells are the basic building blocks of all living organisms. The human body is composed of trillions of cells. A cell provides structure for the body. A cell can take in nutrients from food and convert the nutrients into energy. Cells perform many functions, and thus contain specialized parts for each function, called organelles. The organelle that contains hereditary information is called the nucleus.

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Nucleus

The nucleus is located inside the cell. The nucleus is where all genetic material, i.e. DNA, is stored in the form of chromosomes. In addition to storing all of the genetic information of the cell, the nucleus acts as the cell’s command center, sending directions to the cell signaling that it's time to grow, mature, divide, or die.

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Chromosome

Inside the nucleus, DNA molecules are packed into thread-like structures called chromosomes. The human genome contains over 3 billion base pairs of DNA, in order for the nucleus to be able to hold all of this genetic material, it has to be stored as tightly wound DNA structures. The amount of chromosomes inside a nucleus varies from species to species. Human beings have 46 chromosomes, while elephants have 56 chromosomes. The amount of genes on each chromosome varies from chromosome to chromosome.

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GENE

A basic unit of heredity and a sequence of nucleotides in DNA or RNA that encodes the synthesis of a gene product, either RNA or protein, found in all living things; some genes form a set of instructions for the manufacture of proteins. Colossal has already sequenced the genes of both the Asian Elephant and the Woolly Mammoth.

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