Who Is Ben Lamm? About the Colossal Biosciences CEO
The CEO of Colossal Biosciences is a billionaire and the co-founder of the company. Learn more about him here.
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Colossal Biosciences is celebrating a huge victory. The Texas-based biotechnology and engineering company successfully managed to de-extinct the dire wolf, a canine species that went extinct thousands of years ago. Some people may recognize the wolf from Game of Thrones. As more learn about the de-extinction process and about dire wolves, Colossal Biosciences CEO Ben Lamm helped break down the feat.
Below, learn more about Lamm and his company’s de-extinction of dire wolves.
How Were Dire Wolves Brought Back?
Per Colossal’s press release, the company:
Extracted and sequenced ancient DNA from two dire wolf fossils Assembled ancient genomes from both and compared those to genomes from living canids, including wolves, jackals, foxes and dholes Identified gene variants that were specific to dire wolves Determined that dire wolves had a white coat color, and long thick fur Performed multiplex gene editing to a donor genome from their closest living relative, the gray wolf Screen edited cell lines via whole genome sequencing and karyotyping Cloned high quality cell lines using somatic cell nuclear transfer into donor egg cells Performed embryo transfer and managed interspecies surrogacy Successfully birthed an extinct speciesWho Is Ben Lamm?
Lamm is the CEO and co-founder of Colossal Biosciences. The entrepreneur and billionaire has appeared at countless public events to promote his company’s quest to de-extinct multiple species. On the topic of dire wolves, Lamm said he “could not be more proud of the team” at Colossal.
According to an April 2025 press release, Lamm added, “This massive milestone is the first of many coming examples demonstrating that our end-to-end de-extinction technology stack works. Our team took DNA from a 13,000 year old tooth and a 72,000 year old skull and made healthy dire wolf puppies. It was once said, ‘any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’ Today, our team gets to unveil some of the magic they are working on and its broader impact on conservation.”
Who Is George Church?
George Church is an accomplished geneticist and the co-founder of Colossal Biosciences. According to the company’s 2025 press release, Church said, “Preserving, expanding, and testing genetic diversity should be done well before important endangered animal species like the red wolf are lost. Another source of ecosystem variety stems from our new technologies to de-extinct lost genes, including deep ancient DNA sequencing, polyphyletic trait analyses, multiplex germline editing, and cloning. The dire wolf is an early example of this, including the largest number of precise genomic edits in a healthy vertebrate so far. A capability that is growing exponentially.”
