Science & TechBiology
Colossal unveils AI tool to map the gene edits it would need to bring back the dodo
The GenoMorph platform has picked out about 2,300 candidate edits for the shape of the dodo's skull and face, working from a single surviving genome.
Key points
- GenoMorph has found about 2,300 possible DNA edits linked to the dodo's head shape.
- Colossal has only one dodo genome, against about 100 for the woolly mammoth.
- Its colony of Nicobar pigeons, the dodo's closest living relative, has grown to 36 birds.
Colossal Biosciences, the company trying to revive extinct animals, has built an artificial intelligence platform to work out which genes it would need to change in a living bird to recreate the dodo.
The tool, called GenoMorph, was announced on Wednesday. It combines 3D measurements of skulls, comparisons of genomes across species and data on how bird embryos develop, to point scientists towards edits worth testing when genetic data is scarce. So far it has picked out about 2,300 candidate DNA edits tied to the shape of the dodo’s skull and face, which are now ready for lab work.
Chief executive Ben Lamm called it a “treasure map for the dodo genome”. GenoMorph does not edit genes itself, and he stressed that finding a likely edit “doesn’t mean we immediately introduce it into an animal or assume it’s safe”.
Working from one genome
The dodo is a harder case than Colossal’s woolly mammoth project. Colossal has about 100 mammoth genomes but only one from the dodo, because DNA survives poorly in the tropical conditions where the bird lived. GenoMorph was trained on developmental data from chickens, quail, ducks and pigeons, and on genetic data and skull measurements from more than 70 bird species. It took more than a year to build.
Colossal also described a lipid nanoparticle system to deliver gene-editing tools into developing bird embryos, so its scientists do not have to wait for birds to reach breeding age. Its colony of Nicobar pigeons, the dodo’s closest living relative, has grown to 36, and it has produced the cells that develop into eggs and sperm.
Separately, XPRIZE founder Peter Diamandis, an investor in Colossal, has set up a venture fund, NeoGenesis Capital, to back companies using Colossal’s technology in health, farming and conservation.