Colossal Foundation attracts $50 million of secured funding for species conservation

USA breakthrough genetic engineering and de-extinction company, Colossal Biosciences, has today announced the formation of The Colossal Foundation and the initial flagship projects in its conservation agenda which have attracted an initial $50 million of secured funding.

Colossal was founded by emerging technology and software entrepreneur Ben Lamm and world-renowned geneticist and serial biotech entrepreneur George Church, Ph.D., and is the first to apply CRISPR technology for the purposes of species de-extinction.

Among the Foundation’s current projects focussed on species closest to extinction involves a partnership with Zoos Victoria on the Victorian Grassland Earless Dragon

The Colossal Foundation is a 501(c)(3) dedicated to supporting the use of cutting-edge technologies to conservation efforts globally to help prevent extinction of keystone species.

A 501(c)(3) organisation is a nonprofit organisation established exclusively for one of the following purposes: charitable, religious, educational, scientific, literary, testing for public safety, fostering national or international amateur sports competition, or preventing cruelty to children or animals.

The foundation will specifically focus on partner-led conservation initiatives where Colossal’s science and technologies can revolutionise wildlife conservation and ecosystem restoration, quickly.

Colossal Chief Executive and co-founder Ben Lamm advised “we started The Colossal Foundation to ensure that we are delivering our technology solutions into the hands of those who can benefit the most.

“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.”

As part of a ten-year conservation strategic plan developed with its conservation partners, the Colossal Foundation will fund and deploy new technologies in partnership with local communities. In partnership with local stakeholders, the Colossal Foundation will select species where the technologies can be best deployed, and then co-create initiatives with local partners for the conservation of the species.

The Foundation is launching with three core programmatic focuses.

•Saving today’s at-risk species: Partnering with conservation efforts where Colossal’s technology-based de-extinction innovations can bring genetic rescue solutions to conservation rescue species. In doing so the Colossal Foundation plans to build a model for integrating cutting-edge biotechnology technology with conservation efforts to bring back species that have been driven to the brink of extinction. The long term goal is to create a toolkit approach to simplify genetic rescue for conservationists. Initial projects include efforts focused on the Vaquita, Northern White and Sumatran Rhinos, Red Wolf, Northern Quoll, Ivory Billed Woodpecker, and Pink Pigeon.

•R&D for Conservation: Colossal will partner to fund and deploy technologies that leverage artificial intelligence, machine learning, and computational biology to enhance an understanding of animal behaviour and ecosystems, and pave the way for innovative, data-driven approaches to preventing extinction with conservation partners. Current projects include the Colossal drone-based anomaly detection system used by Save the Elephants, a vaquita acoustic monitoring program, and an AI-enabled orphaned elephant monitoring system leveraged by Elephant Havens in Botswana.

•Ensuring Tomorrow’s Biodiversity: Developing a distributed genetic repository of species (a biobank) which can act as an insurance policy against unforeseen threats to biodiversity and provide a safety net for species facing extinction. The focus will be on those species closest to extinction to ensure their genetic diversity is not lost and the potential to bring them back, should the worst happen, remains. Current projects include those focused on a partnership with the Zoos Victoria on the Victorian Grassland Earless Dragon, with Re:wild on the Top 25 Most Wanted Lost Species, and with the IUCN SSC's Pigeon and Dove Specialist Group on the Tooth-billed Pigeon.

For more information on the Colossal Foundation 

Image. Current projects include those focused on a partnership with Zoos Victoria on the Victorian Grassland Earless Dragon.