Colossal Biosciences
American biotechnology company
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| April 2025 | Colossal announced the birth of two cloned red wolf litters from three different genetic founder lines, including three male wolf pups (Blaze, Cinder, and Ash) and one adolescent female wolf (Hope). |
| April 2025 | Colossal used cloning and gene-editing to birth three genetically modified wolf pups: six-month-old males Romulus and Remus, and two-month-old female Khaleesi, based on dire wolf genome research. |
| March 2025 | Colossal created gene-edited 'woolly mice' with mutations inspired by woolly mammoths, featuring long, shaggy, tawny-toned fur. |
| 2025 | Colossal was voted one of the best places to work in Dallas, Texas, U.S. by Builtin. |
| March 2025 | Colossal announced the creation of gene-edited 'woolly mice' with mammoth-inspired mutations, featuring long, shaggy, tawny-toned fur, as a step toward engineering mammoth-like Asian elephants. |
| January 2025 | Colossal sequenced the complete genome of the Tasmanian tiger and created a prototype artificial uterus that successfully cultured marsupial embryos past halfway through pregnancy. |
| January 2025 | Colossal secured $200 million in Series C funding, bringing its total valuation to $10.2 billion and becoming Texas' first decacorn. The company has raised $435 million in total funding since its foundation. |
| 2024 | Colossal successfully produced the first-ever elephant and dunnart induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). |
| December 2024 | Colossal and University of Melbourne began research into engineering immunity to chytridiomycosis, a lethal fungal disease affecting amphibians. |
| October 2024 | Colossal launched the Colossal Foundation, a non-profit initiative, and the Colossal Biovault to collect and store tissue samples of endangered species, initially focusing on 12 critically endangered species. |
| October 2024 | Colossal rebuilt a 99.9% accurate genome of the thylacine using a 110-year-old fossilized Tasmanian tiger skull, creating the most complete ancient genome to date. |
| October 2024 | Colossal announced $50 million in funding for the launch of the Colossal Foundation. |
| July 2024 | The first-ever mRNA vaccine for elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV) was administered to an elephant, developed by Colossal, the Houston Zoo, and the Baylor College of Medicine. |
| May 2024 | Colossal and the University of Melbourne successfully engineered cane toad toxin resistance in marsupial cells to aid in conservation efforts for the northern quoll. |
| April 2024 | Colossal launched Breaking, a plastic degradation startup that discovered X-32, a microbe capable of breaking down plastics in 22 months. |
| March 2024 | Colossal and Re:wild established a 10-year conservation strategy to save species on the brink of extinction and restore key habitats. |
| 2023 | Colossal was included in Time's 100 Most Influential Companies list. |
| 2023 | Launched the Tasmanian Thylacine Advisory Committee, a research project aimed at developing a plan to release Tasmanian tiger joeys back to their original habitats in Tasmania and broader Australia after a period of captive observation. |
| 2023 | Company announces its goal to produce woolly mammoth hybrid calves by 2028 and reintroduce them to the Arctic tundra habitat. |
| November 2023 | Colossal announced a research partnership with Save the Elephants to track African elephants in the Samburu National Reserve using advanced drone and pose estimation technologies. |
| November 2023 | Colossal initiated a partnership with the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation to restore ecosystems and work on rewilding the dodo bird and genetically rescuing the pink pigeon. |
| October 2023 | Colossal and Zoos Victoria began a conservation project to preserve the Victorian Grassland Earless Dragon and sequence its genome. |
| September 2023 | Colossal partnered with BioRescue to help save the northern white rhino from extinction using reproduction and stem cell technologies. |
| May 2023 | Colossal partnered with the Vertebrate Genomes Project to generate the first high-quality reference genome of an African elephant. |
| January 2023 | Colossal formed its Avian Genomics Group, led by Beth Shapiro, dedicated to reconstructing dodo bird DNA with the aim of creating hybrid dodo-like birds. |
| January 2023 | Colossal completed a Series B funding round, raising $150 million and achieving a valuation over $1 billion. The company also launched its Conservation Advisory Board. |
| 2022 | Colossal Biosciences was listed as one of the World Economic Forum's Technology Pioneers and received the Genomics Innovation of the Year award from the BioTech Breakthrough Awards. |
| October 2022 | Colossal announced the development of a vaccine for elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV) in partnership with the Baylor College of Medicine. |
| September 2022 | Colossal spun out its software platform, Form Bio, with $30 million in funding. |
| August 2022 | Colossal announced the launch of a thylacine research project, partnering with the University of Melbourne to potentially 're-extinct' the Tasmanian tiger. |
| July 2022 | VGP and Colossal successfully sequenced the entire Asian elephant genome, marking the first full mammalian genetic code sequencing since the Human Genome Project. |
| March 2022 | Colossal raised $60 million in Series A funding led by Thomas Tull, bringing total funding to $75 million. |
| 2021 | Colossal scientists plan to create embryos by reprogramming Asian elephant skin cells into induced pluripotent stem cells carrying mammoth DNA. |
| 2021 | Colossal Biosciences founded by George Church and Ben Lamm in Dallas, Texas, with a mission to use genetic engineering to de-extinct species like the woolly mammoth, Tasmanian tiger, northern white rhinoceros, and dodo bird. |
| October 2021 | Colossal announced a partnership with VGP to fund sequencing and assembling of elephant genomes for preservation. |
| October 2021 | Colossal announced a partnership with VGP to fund the sequencing and assembly of Asian, African bush, and African forest elephant genomes. |
| September 13 2021 | Colossal was officially launched with a $15 million seed funding round led by Thomas Tull, Tim Draper, Tony Robbins, Winklevoss Capital Management, Breyer Capital, and Richard Garriott. |
| 2019 | Ben Lamm, a serial entrepreneur, contacted George Church at his Boston lab after being intrigued by press reports of his de-extinction idea. |
| 2017 | Church's lab reported successfully adding 45 genes to the genome of an Asian elephant. |
| 2015 | Church and his genetics team used CRISPR to copy mammoth genes into the genome of an Asian elephant and integrated mammoth genes into elephant skin cells, focusing on 60 genes important to mammoth traits. |
| 2013 | Church presented a talk at the National Geographic Society mapping out the idea of Colossal. |
| 2012 | Church was part of a team that pioneered the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing tool, opening potential for altering genetic code to engineer the 'mammophant'. |
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