Colossal Foundation Donates $1.5M to Harvard-Based Institute to Advance Artificial Womb Tech for Wildlife Conservation

The funding will support groundbreaking research into artificial womb technologies with the goal of protecting endangered species and advancing wildlife conservation efforts, the foundation said.

The Colossal Foundation, the nonprofit arm of Dallas-based Colossal BioSciences, has announced a $1.5 million donation to Dr. George Church’s lab at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.

Colossal, a leading organization focused on pioneering innovative scientific solutions for conservation and biodiversity, said the funding will support groundbreaking research into artificial womb technologies with the goal of protecting endangered species and advancing wildlife conservation efforts.

“The mission of The Colossal Foundation is to blend cutting-edge technology with conservation science to restore ecosystems and combat biodiversity loss,” Ben Lamm, Dallas-based co-founder and CEO of Colossal Biosciences, said in a statement. “By combining the Wyss Institute’s groundbreaking work with our commitment to conservation-focused innovation, we are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in saving species. This collaboration marks a bold step toward a sustainable future.”

The collaboration between The Colossal Foundation and Church, a world-renowned geneticist and bioengineer, aims to explore the use of artificial wombs to safeguard the future of species facing extinction, the foundation said.

By leveraging cutting-edge biotechnology, including gene editing and advanced tissue engineering, the foundation said the project seeks to create sustainable and scalable methods to allow development of embryos outside of a natural womb with an ultimate goal of ensuring the survival of endangered species and potentially resurrect species that have already gone extinct.

Revolutionizing reproductive biology for endangered species

The Wyss Institute is known for its interdisciplinary approach to tackling complex challenges and will direct the funds toward advancing its existing expertise in organogenesis and synthetic biology to develop scalable artificial womb systems, the foundation said.

“This generous support from The Colossal Foundation will accelerate our efforts to create artificial womb platforms that not only support de-extinction but also have the potential to revolutionize reproductive biology for endangered species,” said Church, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and professor of bioengineering at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

According to the foundation, an artificial womb — also known as an ectogenesis system — would provide a means to grow healthy embryos outside of a natural womb, making it possible for endangered species to be born in safe and controllable environments without the use of a surrogate.

“Artificial wombs are both a technological marvel and a conservation imperative,” Colossal Foundation Executive Director Matt James said in a statement. “By eliminating the need for surrogate mothers, these technologies could dramatically accelerate the rate at which threatened species can be restored and threatened habitats can be revitalized.”

The foundation said that many critically endangered species face pressures from human activities, habitat loss, climate change, poaching, and disease, which can disrupt breeding cycles or reduce opportunities to breed because of dwindling populations. It said that artificial wombs could help mitigate those threats by offering an environment in which the embryos can be safely developed, and by increasing the number of embryos that can be safely birthed.

Using technology to restore ecosystems

Colossal said the collaboration builds on the foundation’s ongoing work in genetic engineering and conservation technology, including efforts to combat the chytrid fungus that is devastating amphibian species around the world and efforts to improve the resilience of threatened populations including the vaquita and the Mauritian pink pigeon.

It said that this new partnership with the Wyss Institute highlights the critical role that technological innovation will play in reversing the damage to species and ecosystems caused by habitat loss, climate change, and human activities.

“Generous donations like this one from The Colossal Foundation make our cutting-edge science possible,” Wyss Institute Founding Director Don Ingber said in a statement. “The work this donation will support will have far reaching ramifications, and we are thrilled to be Colossal’s partner in this effort.”

Church’s lab at the Wyss Institute already is a global leader in developing bioengineering solutions for applications spanning human health to environmental sustainability. Its interdisciplinary approach to technology innovation and translation combines biological engineering, material science, and computational biology, positioning it as an ideal partner for this transformative project, Colossal Foundation said.

The foundation and the Wyss Institute said that with this new funding, they hope to lead the way for a future where artificial womb technologies are not only used for the conservation of existing species but also as a tool to restore ecosystems damaged by centuries of environmental degradation.

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