A billion dollar startup Colossal Life Sciences claims it is one step closer to reviving the dodo, a flightless bird that has been extinct since the 17th century.
The futuristic plan is only possible now that the Dallas-based company has decoded the entire genome of the dodo, according to a press release.
The bird is the latest in the collection of long-gone animals that scientists are trying to bring back to life. The startup has previously announced plans to replicate the Tasmanian wolf the woolly mammoth.
There is still work to be done before these birds can be brought back. Scientists can’t create life from scratch, so they must find a way to introduce the dodo-specific genes into the embryo of a living animal.
That in itself is not an easy task. The next step is to compare this genetic information with the genes of closely related birds like the Nicobar pigeon and the Rodrigues solitaire, an extinct giant flightless pigeon, to figure out the mutations that “make a dodo a dodo,” Beth Shapiro, a lead geneticist on the project, told CNN.
Shapiro says the ultimate plan is it reintroduce the birds to Mauritius, where they lived before being wiped out by humans.
A bird created with such an approach would be a hybrid resembling its ancestor.
The plan is “very, very challenging,” said Ewanbirney, deputy director of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, who is not involved with the project. told The guard.
Still, the company has raised an additional $150 million for the project since 2021, bringing the total to $225 million Bloombergthe latest investment values the startup at $1.5 billion.
There are obvious ethical issues when considering creating a species with the goal of releasing it into the wild,birney said.
“There are people who think that you should do something because you can, but I’m not sure what purpose it serves and if that’s really the best allocation of resources,” Birley said The guard.
“We should save the species we have before they become extinct.”
Colossal Life Sciences claims bringing these animals back is not their only goal.
These grand plans also serve as Moon shot for conservation research and the hope is that useful tools can be discovered along the way to help animals survive the current biodiversity crisis, it said.
“We are clearly in the middle of an extinction crisis. And it’s our responsibility to tell stories and inspire people enough to motivate them to think about the extinction crisis that’s happening right now,” Shapiro told CNN.
“I’m particularly looking forward to advancing the genetic rescue tools focused on bird and avian conservation,” she said.
This article was originally published by Business Insider.
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