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Ben Lamm Represents The Potential Of Biotech, And Why We Should Keep Supporting Innovators
The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence in genetic engineering, health care, and medical research could lead to significant improvements in human health and our ecological environment in the decades ahead. But biotech innovators and entrepreneurs worldwide will have to overcome a global political environment that has suddenly become skeptical of science, expertise and public health in general.
Last week, 20,000 scientists, executives, investors and startups descended upon Boston for the BIO 2025 Convention – the largest medical research and biotech convening in the world. The convening took place amidst significant opportunity – and turmoil, in health care worldwide. The rapidly expanding capabilities of artificial intelligence are unlocking new opportunities to develop new drugs, therapeutics, wearables and devices. But BIO also comes at a time of significant declines in government funding for basic science and R&D, as well as a drop in global leadership around public health challenges like pandemic preparedness.
BIO 2025 Exhibition Hall
In 2025, the United States is expected to announce cuts of 40-60% to the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation. Yet American states are offering biotech's R&D credits, seed funding, lab space and commitments to improve their workforce and academic institutions. Nations around the world, sensing opportunity, are also rolling out the red carpet to attract the top scientists in the world. BIO itself highlighted the importance of building public trust in biotechnology and working with regulatory bodies to streamline approvals for innovative products.
Colossal Biosciences is a great example of a biotech startup at the intersection of these trends and challenges. Founded by legendary geneticist Dr. George Church of Harvard and MIT, and serial AI entrepreneur Ben Lamm, Colossal is pioneering the use of CRISPR technology in the de-extinction of previously lost species, including the Dire wolf. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, nearly 50% of all animal species could be endangered of becoming extinct by 2050. According to Lamm, 'We are the back-up plan. It's like, when we jump out of a plane, we all hope the parachute is going to open, but just in case, we want to have a back-up emergency 'chute. Colossal is that back-up.'
The company defines de-extinction as the process of generating an organism that both resembles and is genetically similar to an extinct species by resurrecting its lost lineage of core genes; engineering natural resistances; and enhancing adaptability that will allow it to thrive in today's environment of climate change, dwindling resources, disease and human interference.
The Dire Wolf, as imagined by Colossal Biosciences
Such ambition and optimism were pervasive across BIO. Scores of startups today are using artificial intelligence for health care delivery, hospital operations, digital health platforms, diagnostics, patient monitoring tools, revenue cycle management, and even regulatory and compliance innovations. Biotech startups are using AI to improve drug discovery, target validation and optimize clinical trials. CRISPR, the ubiquitous gene editing tool now used in drug discovery, continues to improve as more genomes are mapped.
Colossal has developed a set of new software tools and technologies, along with CRISPR gene editing technology to resurrect these specific species but to also build a 'de-extinction toolkit' that can be used for difference animal species as needed. According to Chief Science Officer, Dr. Beth Shapiro, a world-renowned evolutionary molecular biologist and a leading figure in the field of ancient DNA and paleo genomics, 'we are developing a modular system that combines gene editing, cryopreservation, synthetic biology, and cloning to preserve, restore, and recreate species.'
As an example, the team at Colossal uses the genetics of the used the genetics of the closet relative of the team successfully used comparative genetics with its closest living relatives, the gray wolf, to fill in critical gaps in the genetic sequence. That cloning research that came from the project has immediate impacts on red wolf conservation and will serve as a critical tool for all canid restoration in the future.
The biotech industry worldwide continues to grow in importance, and no doubt there will be continued investment in the basic science, R&D and commercialization that drives important companies like Colossal and others. It is less clear whether that leadership will come from the United States or other nations – such as the United Arab Emirates, India, China, Japan or elsewhere? We don't know what areas of innovation those nations will prioritize, and whether or not important moonshots – like bringing back the woolly mammoth, will be on their radar. American leadership – scientific, political and financial, needs to remain committed to improving health of humans and the planet at large.
