Colossal Biosciences Launches the Colossal Foundation to Center Technology and Collaboration Within the Conservation Movement

Colossal Biosciences — the unicorn startup focused on reviving extinct species like the woolly mammoth, dodo bird, and Tasmanian tiger — recently unveiled its nonprofit organization, the Colossal Foundation. Equipped with $50 million in initial funding, it’s focused on transforming the worldwide conservation movement through technological advancement.

“We started the Colossal Foundation to ensure that we are delivering our technology solutions into the hands of those who can benefit the most,” said Colossal CEO and co-founder Ben Lamm.

“The Colossal Foundation further expands our capacity to get our technologies into the world as fast as possible and brings new, much-needed funding to conservation while empowering the modernization of the tools. We envision a future where conservation efforts are proactive, innovative, and impactful because of the application of these emerging technologies,” he continue

As the Colossal Foundation seeks to apply company-developed sciences to worldwide conservation challenges, it’s guided by three core principles that it shares with its parent company, Colossal Biosciences.

Colossal’s 3 Core Principles

These core principles are the basis for the foundation’s key programs and 10-year strategic conservation plan. They represent the future of a conservation movement that’s centered on science and technology as a means for encouraging collaboration.

1. Science and Technology

By centering science and technology at the forefront of the conservation movement, the Colossal Foundation is working to disrupt our extinction crisis with novel, groundbreaking tools and techniques like genetic rescue.

In addition to saving today’s endangered species and promoting vital research and development of conservation efforts, this helps to safeguard biodiversity in the future. While the conservation movement is often focused on the present, Colossal Biosciences and the foundation are developing methods to support future biodiversity.

One of these methods is biobanking, the process of collecting and storing biological information (such as tissue and genomes) of the Earth’s animal kingdom.

Colossal has already utilized biobanking to support its efforts to revive extinct species, but the Colossal Foundation aims to build the world’s largest biobank with its Colossal Biovault. To inaugurate the biovault, Colossal will be biobanking 100 of the world’s most endangered vertebrate species selected with the guidance of respected conservation authorities like the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

“Biobanking doesn’t only mean putting tissues on ice, we’re talking about cryopreservation of tissues but also the genomic sequencing of all these endangered species. So, you’re creating physical backups in a cryovault, but you’re also creating digital backups,” Matt James, the Colossal Foundation’s executive director, told Syfy Wire.

“That digital sequencing information is really powerful to not just us but to conservationists globally. And these biobanks would be spread out all over the world, keeping preserved tissues in the places they come from, rather than hoarding them all in one place,” he continued.

2. Collaborative Conservation

With the World Animal Foundation predicting that half of all species could go extinct by 2050, a primary tenet of the Colossal Foundation is that long-term, widespread conservation cannot be achieved by one organization or goal; it requires an international network of partners.

Building upon Colossal’s worldwide partnerships, the Colossal Foundation will collaborate closely with conservation experts, local groups, and the Indigenous community, carrying out a variety of targeted projects to protect at-risk species like the northern white and Sumatran rhinos, vaquita, African and Asian elephants, northern quoll, pink pigeon, tooth-billed pigeon, and Victorian grassland earless dragon.

Colossal’s partnerships have already had lasting impacts on these precious species. Last year, the company hosted the first-ever Sumatran rhino convention, bringing stakeholders from around the world together to develop a conservation plan for the species involving assisted reproduction.

Now, the Colossal Foundation will provide the Indonesian government with funding, guidance, and technological support to bolster the country’s breeding program and is partnering with Bogor Agricultural University to allow for local development of reproductive technologies like in vitro fertilization.

The foundation will also leverage Colossal’s genomic toolkit to provide sequencing support to inform breeding strategies with genetic insights into the current population.

“The advanced technology, training, and funding support that the Colossal Foundation is promising for the conservation of the Sumatran rhino is an important support to Indonesia’s efforts to save and recover this magnificent species,” said Dr. Muhammad Agil, team leader of assisted reproductive technology and biobank for endangered wildlife species at IPB University. “In collaboration with global experts on the (ART) and biobank program for the species, IPB University is excited to work with Colossal for the transfer of skills and technology to Indonesia, under our partnership agreement.”

3. Local Community Engagement

In addition to collaborating with scientists and conservation specialists, the Colossal Foundation believes that local and Indigenous collaboration is crucial to the conservation movement in offering traditional ecological knowledge toward the shared goal of species preservation.

“We value Indigenous spiritual, ecological, and cultural knowledge. Working with Indigenous partners to ensure their conservation goals, priority species, and extinct species goals are met is an important part of our conservation strategy, in America and globally,” Lamm said.

The Colossal Foundation will expand upon Colossal Biosciences recently announced BioTEK Agenda, which aims to combine the practices and interests of traditional ecological knowledge with the tools and techniques of the company’s conservation toolkit. Among the foundation’s initial conservation focuses will be the red wolf, a species that holds cultural and spiritual significance for a number of Indigenous tribes, including the Cherokee Nation.

A Colossal Ally

With scientists continuing to warn about an impending mass extinction event, the Colossal Foundation is putting together a worldwide community connected by the latest conservation technologies. Guided by three core principles, the Colossal Foundation is solid in its work to ensure our species have a future.

“The short story is that conservation needs powerful and committed allies,” said James. “We are here to be that ally. There is no more time to wait to protect the species we have on Earth today if we want to make sure they are still here in 10, 50, and 500 years.”

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241001245642/en/Colossal-Launches-The-Colossal-Foundation