According to Inc, Colossal Biosciences’ nonprofit arm, The Colossal Foundation, just secured an additional $50 million in funding, doubling its total in just one year. CEO Ben Lamm says most of the new money comes from existing investors and is new capital for conservation. The foundation is using that cash for five key programs, and has already cloned four wolves with over 69% red wolf ancestry to aid the critically endangered American Red Wolf. It has also developed an mRNA vaccine for a deadly elephant herpesvirus, vaccinating at least ten elephants across five U.S. zoos since spring 2025. Furthermore, the foundation is partnering on a major AI-powered bioacoustics study in Yellowstone, deploying 48 sensors and audio-logging collars on wolves to decode their communication.
The real work isn’t always the flashy stuff
Here’s the thing: bringing back a woolly mammoth is an incredible headline. It’s the baking soda volcano of biotech—spectacular and attention-grabbing. But Lamm is making a crucial point. The day-to-day, unsexy work of genetic rescue, vaccine development, and population monitoring is what actually keeps species from disappearing in the first place. The foundation’s focus feels like a necessary counterbalance to Colossal’s for-profit de-extinction dreams. It’s a smart play, honestly. It builds scientific credibility and tackles immediate crises, which probably makes it easier to ask for $50 million checks. You can’t just be the “woolly mammoth company” forever.
Cloning as a conservation tool
The red wolf project is a fascinating case study. They’re not cloning the red wolf itself, but its ancestral “ghost” relatives to inject desperately needed genetic diversity back into the population. This tackles a genetic bottleneck head-on. When a population gets too small, inbreeding crashes genetic diversity, making the entire species more vulnerable. So, cloning here isn’t about creating a zoo oddity; it’s a surgical tool to repair a broken gene pool. It’s a pragmatic, if controversial, application of tech usually associated with sci-fi. The question is, can they scale this model for other species on the brink?
Shifting culture and curing diseases
Lamm’s comments about the cultural shift are maybe the most interesting part. He’s basically arguing that de-extinction is a gateway drug for conservation science. The wow factor of a mammoth gets people—and kids—excited, which then opens the door to talking about the less glamorous, systemic work needed to protect what we still have. And that elephant vaccine claim is staggering. If that mRNA vaccine truly works as a preventative cure for EEHV, that’s a legacy-defining achievement all on its own. It’s a reminder that sometimes the biggest impact comes from solving one very specific, devastating problem, not just the grandest vision.
So, what does this mean?
Colossal is positioning its foundation as a new kind of funder and tech incubator for conservation. They want to be the entity that brings Silicon Valley-style funding and “moonshot” thinking to a field that’s often underfunded and incremental. It’s a bold experiment. Will this influx of “new money” and tech actually move the needle faster than traditional conservation? Or does it risk creating a two-tier system? The success of projects like the wolf cloning and the elephant vaccine will be the real test. If they deliver tangible, repeatable wins, they might just blueprint a new future for saving species. And that’s a future worth watching.
