“Ben Lamm is making the impossible possible, working to bring animals back from extinction. Although it was a difficult feat to accomplish in under five years, his company, Colossal Biosciences, which he co-founded with American geneticist George Church in 2021, has already revived the dire wolf. Yes, the beloved species found in Game of Thrones.”, — write: www.hollywoodreporter.com
Although it was a difficult feat to accomplish in under five years, his company, Colossal Biosciences, which he co-founded with American geneticist George Church in 2021, has already revived the dire wolf. Yes, the beloved species found in Game of Thrones.
“The idea that we could do something that could have a really awesome impact and then also build a lot of value in the tech [space] and create the leading genome and engineering company, while also inspiring the next generation, for me it was the perfect combination,” Lamm tells The Hollywood Reporter of his reason for launching Colossal. “It was one of those true opportunities that if we were successful, the world would never be the same again.”
With the support of some Hollywood investors — including filmmaker Peter Jackson, author George RR Martin, actress Sophie Turner and former NFL star Tom Brady, to name a few — the 43-year-old billionaire entrepreneur has brought the development of genetic engineering and reproductive technology to the public stage, sparking interest across the globe.
Below, Lamm opens up about his de-extinction initiative, how Colossal chose their first group of species, how several Hollywood notables got involved with his company, if he’s open to bringing people behind the scenes of Colossal’s work in a documentary and more.
What do you make of everything Colossal has been able to accomplish in such a short amount of time, since launching only a few years ago in 2021?
The fact that in less than four years, we’ve taken 73,000-year-old skulls and made puppies, and we brought the world’s first woolly mouse — not that the world even needed it, but it’s kind of cool and interesting, right? I had no idea it was going to be such a viral impact on kids and parents. We get at least four or five emails a day about the woolly mouse, which is just insane. And given the fact that we get all these crazy, supportive governments around the world, indigenous people groups around the world, crazy amounts of celebrity [support]like we don’t pay celebrity endorsements, they’re investors in us. And it’s been this weird worldwide movement. So I would say, I thought people would be really excited about the mission. I was hopeful because obviously, the inspiration and impact side. I had no idea we’d have this level of excitement and support around the business. So I am in awe every day of the incredible women and men of what they’ve achieved scientifically in an insane amount of time.
There are unfortunately so many extinct animals, so what made you want to start with the woolly mammoth, Tasmanian tiger, dodo, dire wolf and moa?
So a couple of reasons, right? As we build out a robust, like de-extinction tool kit, ranging from ancient DNA assembly to comparative genomics to genome engineering to even eventually things like artificial wombs, we wanted to pick different animals from different animal clades, so it was representative of large family groups. So hopefully the technologies are easily adaptable from a conservation perspective. And it’s not like we have a five-step checklist. But we do think about things like, one, is it possible? Does this DNA exist? Is there a surrogate until we have artificial wombs existing? And then, should we do it? Is there a conservation benefit to it? Is there an indigenous input? It was crazy to think that we’d ever work on one of those species that has this cultural impact on these people without consulting them. So that has to be a layer to it. And then there’s certain pop culture elements like the dire wolf, right? It has a conservation aspect, as well as an indigenous aspect. It can help ecosystems. There’s a lot to it. But then we’re like, most people think the dire wolf was just in Game of Thrones or Magic: The Gathering. It had this fantasy and nerd culture component that was like, oh my gosh, we could bring all those people into science and show people what’s possible.
Dire wolves Romulus and Remus. Courtesy of Colossal
What other extinct species are on your list to revive in the future?
There’s a couple that are really awesome. There’s one called the freat auk, which was basically a North American penguin species that’s like penguin meets puffins. A really cool animal that Vikings and others hunted to extinction. We’re not working on it yet, but as we get further with our avian genomics group on the moa and dodo, I think it’d be a great project to add. Another project that we’re not working on, but I’d love to is a Steller’s sea cow. It’s like a whale-sized manatee. It’s a terrible tragedy — 30 or 40 years after humans discovered it was extinct.
Dire wolves Romulus and Remus just had their first birthday earlier this month, but when it was announced earlier this year that they had been brought back from extinction, it went viral. What goes through your mind when you reflect on that excitement from people at that time?
I was sitting on stage at [South by Southwest] doing an interview and we had just shown the world woolly mouse and we’re showing the videos and people were just losing their minds. We thought they’re cute and we thought it’s a major technological advancement showing that we could engineer the genes around hair from a mammoth into mice to prove that we’re on the right track and whatnot. But at the same time, I had no idea that Chip and Dale were gonna go a stupid level of viral, and they’re on Jimmy Kimmel and on Saturday Night Live and they’re on everything. So I remember thinking at [South by Southwest]if people lose their minds and are this excited about the woolly mice, what is about to happen? And we had people come to our labs looking for the mice and we had to ramp up security ’cause we’re not as open to the public. So it got a little insane and then we’re like, oh my gosh, how crazy is the dire wolf, and we were right, the dire wolf was insane. It was a crazy week. … The 10 days around the launch felt like 40 years in themselves. But at the end of the day, everyone was just stupid levels of excited and it just went so crazy and so viral.
Woolly mice. Courtesy of Colossal
You also have quite the roster of Hollywood nobles supporting Colossal’s initiative, including Peter Jackson, George RR Martin, Sophie Turner, Tom Brady, Paris Hilton, Tiger Woods and the Hemsworth brothers, among others. How did you go about bringing these high-profile folks on board?
Some of them I had existing relationships with and then so much of it was just organic. I was in London launching the foundation and a friend of mine pinged me like, “Hey, Joe Manganiello is just super excited about what you’re doing. Can we do a Zoom while you’re there?” And I was like, “Yeah!” … And then we wouldn’t be able to even work on the moa without the support of the Ngāi Tahu and the Māori people, and that introduction wouldn’t have happened without Peter Jackson. … But it’s been like that. I know it sounds weird, but sitting on Peter Jackson’s couch, while people are in his kitchen dissecting his moa bones and doing samples of his moa bones, and he’s like, “We should call George RR Martin.” Like that has been the journey.
Why is it so important for you to have these high-profile names interested and advocating for Colossal’s mission and to help raise awareness? And how would you like Hollywood and Colossal to intersect more?
As we roll out education, we’ve talked about things like colossal kids and about more ideas around how we can put science on display. People always ask us about things like zoos, and we’re not really interested in that because we’re putting the animals back into the wild. So there’s all these different content ways that I think we can build out, you know, we’ve had some of the biggest YouTubers and whatnot reach out to us that we’re now talking to. So it’s like, how do you build those channels so you can create content that’s not disruptive to the animals and bring people in.
What’s great is that Hollywood and entertainment really know how to create captivating stories and find captivating stories and share them, right? So I think more and more engagement with folks like that are helpful. We have a couple of people like Bob Weis, who’s the former CEO of Disney Imagineering. He’s like, “How do you create physical experiences around some of these concepts that get people excited?” We’ve got investors like Ari Emanuel, who’s the top in the world in this category. So hopefully in the next few years, as we make additional progress on science, given the public excitement, we’ll find ways to blend de-extinction, sci-fi-level science, conservation, storytelling and entertainment in more interesting, bigger ways. But we just want to be really thoughtful about that.
Sophie Turner and Ben Lamm. Jack Taylor/Getty Images for SXSW London
Based on the attention the dire wolf received, would you be open to a documentary or behind-the-scenes series, giving people a look at what Colossal is doing?
Yes! We’ve been doing some stuff with James Reed, and I think we’re gonna expand the portfolio things that we’re working on. But I would say, yes. We had a lot of behind-the-scenes on the dire wolf stuff captured. We’re trying to capture more stuff and put it on social media. The problem with some of the big docuseries stuff, it just takes so long to get out and we can get social out immediately. So I think there’s lots of optionality in terms of how to pursue it, but we’re open to everything.
In addition to de-extinction science, Colossal is also advocating for endangered species and restoring ecosystems. Can you talk about your goals on that side?
You don’t need to separate them. In a world where we’re forecast to lose up to 50 percent of biodiversity in the next 25 years, which is terrifying, we need to preserve what we have in ecosystems, but also on a cellular level in cold storage. You need to have a biobank of every single species, kind of like a 2025 and beyond Noah’s Ark, right? We need that on a cellular level, while also protecting existing species. And then we need the ability to have a de-extinction tool kit in the event that there are keystone species or critically endangered species that we need to bring back. It’s always going to be cheaper and easier and more efficient to protect the species than bring it back. But at the same time, I think all these technologies go together. And one of the things that we’re very passionate about with Colossal is I think we’ve done two things really well: we’ve open-sourced all of our technologies for conservation, which is awesome. We have about 65 global partners leveraging our technologies worldwide for saving species from the northern white rhino to the vaquita to many others. But at the same time, we also have started the colossal foundation, which we raised $150 million and we’ll raise additional capital so that we can go out and fund conservation initiatives as long as they’re open source for the world, around partners and universities and others.
Looking ahead, what are your overall goals with de-extinction as you continue to make such large strides?
I just sat with the Crown Prince of Dubai last week, and he turned to me and he goes, “I think this is all just going to get faster.” And I agree with him. I had never thought of it like that or said that, but I think AI, access to things like Quantum, are just going to make everything that we’re working on go faster. And I think that will just get better and better over time. And I think this world of leveraging synthetic biology to be able to engineer life, shape life to direct evolution of life, powered with deep computational biology and AI and mod eling, will allow us as humans to build everything from how do you bring back mammoths to how do you clean up the oceans with plastic and everything. So I really think synthetic biology in the next 5 to 10 years is going to change everything.