If it looks like a duck, nothing like a duck, and grazna like a duck, it may not be a duck, but another genetically modified animal to resemble a duck. This Monday, presented in society as “the first two giant wolves in more than 10,000 years.” The powerful colossal biotechnological company, which a month ago showed some with mammoth genetics, assured in the header of its email for the press: “The first animals welcomed are already here.” But strictly speaking neither giant wolves nor represent the first species to resurrect. And that does not take away an apex of interest to achievement or makes it less revolutionary: it is likely that this same company will allow us to see dodos and tilacinos again. The science behind is of great quality, with first -order scientists, but the company’s valuation depends on continuing to manage these media blows.
“What they have achieved is very risky and they have done so in a very successful way: I take off my hat, because they have solved very complex problems,” acknowledges the geneticist of the CSIC Lluís Montoliu, who in his facet as a bioethics expert is proposed: “What Colossal does is already among surprising and worrying: what is the reason to create these animals, to have a zoo of impossible creatures?”
What has now achieved Colossal?
At the moment, we know what he has told in two reports in Y. Because this achievement has not been published in a scientific journal, the well -made cotton test. At least, with the woolly mice, science had a published study without reviewing in a repository. According to Colossal’s story, after extracting ancient DNA from a tooth from 13,000 years ago in Ohio and an internal ear bone of 72,000 years ago Idaho, 91% of its genome was obtained. They compared it with that of the common wolf, which turned out to be a similar 99.5%, and identified 20 key differences in 14 determining genes in the aspect characteristic of these predators that were extinguished 10,000 years ago. They published common wolf cells to modify those 14 genes and implemented them in dog ovules, which would gesture animals. Of the first 45 embryos, only these 2 came to term (now there is a third, Khalesi). At six months, they already measure 1.20 meters and weigh 80 kilos, although they are expected to reach 150.
Are giant wolves?
They will be as big as a giant wolf, they will have their jaw and robust head, their white fur, their most developed muscles and their howls, but they are not a duck. They are only genetically manipulated normal wolves at the key points to resemble the spectacular carnivores of Game of Thrones. “It is not possible to bring something exactly as it was,” explains Shapiro, scientific head of the company, in the report of the New Yorker. And he clarifies that they have achieved what they wanted: “We have managed to create the phenotype of a giant wolf.” A phenotype is the set of visible features of a living being, such as its appearance, its size, its color or its behavior, which arise from its genes and its surroundings. That is what colossal aspires: to create animals that look like mammoths, tilacinos or dodos. And that is why we talk that they will not get mammoths ,: Languos Elephants and with gigantic fangs. “The main objective is not to make perfect photocopies, but to make hybrid, diverse and selective, with modern, ancient and synthetic DNA,” Church explained to El País long ago.
Why giant wolves?
The species has everything that colossal needs to advance in its investigations while making the public. Ben Lamm, the head of the company, with the wolves as if they were the huargos of Game of Thrones. It is as strategic as media, by guaranteeing spectacular photos and videos. It fits into the narrative of the charismatic megafauna, such as saber teeth. Its genome is more accessible than that of other more distant animals in time. It has a close relative, or similar animal, which allows to serve as a canvas on which to give the genetic brushstrokes that look at it. Even, according to the company’s ambition, I could have a current ecosystem similar to the one that existed when it disappeared.
Are they the first species in welcoming?
No. First, because they are not giant wolves strictly. And besides. Spanish science was a world pioneer in this: on July 30, 2003, an extinguished species was resurrected for the first time, the Bucardo. Aragonese Administration technicians achieved, the last of their kind of Montesses goats, which had completely extinguished when she died in January 2000, after decades of overza. A few months before his death, they had captured her to take DNA samples. Using the technology that allowed the sheep to clone a few years Dollycloning a Celia. The very complex procedure did not go well at all: the new Celia He was born, but a malformation in the lungs drowned it before reaching 10 minutes of life.
What will be the next creatures?
Beth Shapiro is the scientific head of Colossal and, as an expert in rescuing ancient DNA of different species, it is known for first sequencing the Dodo genome for the first time, so it is undoubtedly one of the strongest objectives. The Dodo would return from the hand of Nicobar’s dove and maybe the goose. The Tasmania or Tigre project, legendary Marsupial of Australia, is also on the way: Colossal also has in staff A, professor at the University of Melbourne who has been after that dream for years. It will feature as genetic canvas with the Dunnart, a marsupial mouse. The migratory dove, the lazy land, the saber tooth are also in portfolio …
And of course, the mammoth. It is the Holy Grail of George Church and for that the Lanudos mice were created, to demonstrate that mammoth hair can be put to another species. , something that other specialists see practically unattainable. Although Shapiro was skeptical for years, he has signed for the company and has become an defender of the “functional de -desxtinction”, provided he has real ecological applications. As he explained years ago in a conversation with the country: “I do not understand why not be 100% identical to an extinct species would prevent the introduction of the species in a habitat. If Colossal creates an elephant that is capable of prospering in Siberia, that should be enough, if local people want that to happen.”
What does this do colossal?
valued at more than 10,000 million dollars, with investor of venture capital and personalities such as Thomas Tull, film producer Jurassic WorldParis Hilton, Peter Jackson and Chris Hemsworth. “They are in charge of mass genetic modification, but generating these creatures as if it were recreational technology, to keep interested shareholders,” says Montoliu. The company was launched by the entrepreneur Ben Lamm, which does not save science fiction statements, and the prestigious geneticist of Harvard George Church. “Everything that Church touches becomes gold,” says Montoliu, which is baffled between first class science and the circus associated with this project.
The truth is that Colossal achieves a phenomenal advertising impact from time to time with its scientific successes, such as woolly mice and these giant wolves, but behind there is a biotechnology development that can provide a lot of performance to the company. For example, the process that led to the wolves was carried out by endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) extracted from the blood from living wolves, avoiding invasive techniques. They are also developing artificial uters to gestate these animals, cellular biobancos for conservation, a multispecie genetic editing platform … There are innumerable tools applicable to human medicine and biology that can be patented and marketed for the development of treatments, to improve assisted reproduction or to give environmental solutions. Colossal has already generated several derived companies, such as one for the degradation of plastics through microbes and another of computational biology with biomedical applications.
And they not only resurrect species, they also use their genetic developments to improve the viability of species, such as threats (thanks to the dodo) or the white rhino. In addition, it has closed four red wolves, a functionally extinct species, for which they are designing genetic diversity. In all these developments, valuable objectives are achieved, but they do not stop considering the doubts that Montoliu formalizes: “What do we want to deduce, to show me that you are capable? And why not resurrect Neanderthals? It would be ethically unacceptable, but not for everyone.”
