The Colossal Foundation Doubles Funding to $100 Million to Prevent Mass Extinctions

Non-profit arm of the de-extinction company secures an additional $50 million, expands global projects and partnerships, and releases its inaugural Impact Report detailing progress in the fight against species extinction.

DALLAS, Dec. 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Colossal Foundation, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit arm of Colossal Biosciences, the world's first de-extinction company, today announced an additional $50 million in secured funding—bringing its total to $100 million since its launch just over a year ago. The Foundation also released its inaugural Impact Report detailing the progress and measurable conservation outcomes from this past year. Established to deploy Colossal's breakthrough de-extinction technologies to the front lines of the biodiversity crisis, the Foundation scales and accelerates partner-led efforts to protect wildlife, restore ecosystems, and build a resilient genetic safety net for species worldwide.

In its first year, the Colossal Foundation has launched dozens of projects and partnerships around the world, supporting more than 40 species, piloting or deploying over 20 frontier technologies, and collaborating with over 55 conservation, Indigenous and academic organizations across six continents. The new funding will enable the Foundation to expand its global conservation programs and accelerate on-the-ground, partner-led projects focused on critically endangered species, genetic rescue, wildlife monitoring, and rewilding. Building on its secured $100M, the Colossal Foundation will continue raising additional reserves to launch new projects and scale its impact to more target species over the next decade.

The Colossal Foundation advances its mission to Make Extinction a Thing of the Past by applying breakthrough bioscience and frontier technologies directly into species recovery efforts. Working alongside conservation organizations, researchers, and Indigenous communities, it supports partners through disruptive conservation programs that include locating and monitoring wildlife, preserving genetic diversity, engineering resilience against emerging threats, advancing genetic rescue for critically endangered species, and enabling rewilding projects that restore ecological function. Across these programs, the Foundation deploys emerging tools such as AI-enabled passive monitoring systems, biobanking, genomics, and assisted reproductive technologies to accelerate conservation outcomes and restore a healthier, more resilient planet.

"In just 12 months, we've doubled the Colossal Foundation's funding, allowing us to massively expand our partners and projects—and deliver immediate impact for conservation," said Ben Lamm, Colossal CEO and co-founder. "As our technology advances, our role is clear: move these tools into the hands of those on the front lines of biodiversity loss, and scale conservation innovation fast enough to matter."

Conventional conservation can no longer keep pace with the accelerating loss of nature. Global wildlife populations have fallen by nearly 70%, ecosystems are collapsing, and extinction rates now exceed natural background levels by more than 100-fold. Addressing this crisis requires more than innovation, it demands significant funding, public support, and global coordination. With biodiversity protection underfunded by more than $700 billion annually, the need is urgent. The Colossal Foundation's new $50M in funding will help bridge this chasm by enabling smarter, faster, and more scalable conservation efforts powered by breakthrough biotechnology.

"Traditional conservation remains essential but is no longer sufficient on its own. With wildlife populations plummeting and ecosystems unraveling, relying solely on conventional methods is unsustainable. We at the Colossal Foundation have found emerging tools that expand the conservation toolkit, increasing resilience, restoring lost functions, and preventing future extinctions," said Matt James, Executive Director of the Colossal Foundation. "This new funding allows us to expand the conservation toolkit and embrace science and technology not as replacements for nature, but as instruments to help recover it. We are at a critical moment that demands seeing de-extinction and breakthrough biotechnologies not as fringe concepts, but as frontline strategies in the fight for biodiversity."

The Foundation's 2025 Impact Report, published today, showcases major advances across its global portfolio. Highlights include:

• RESTORING THE RED WOLF
  Achieving a breakthrough in genetic rescue by cloning the world's first "ghost" red wolves to strengthen the genetic diversity of Earth's most endangered wolf species.
  
  
• ENDING THE ELEPHANT EEHV CRISIS
  Accelerating the development of the world's first mRNA vaccine targeting the virus responsible for most juvenile elephant deaths in human care.
  
  
• DECODING THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF WOLVES
  Using AI-enabled bioacoustic sensors to decode wolf howls and develop next-generation wildlife monitoring systems in Yellowstone National Park.
  
  
• SPECIES REINTRODUCTION FUND
  Accelerating global rewilding by investing in the recovery and reintroduction of culturally and ecologically significant species.
  
  
• SAVING AMPHIBIANS FROM THE DEADLY CHYTRID FUNGUS
  Combating the world's deadliest wildlife disease by engineering disease-resistant frogs capable of surviving in chytrid-positive environments.
  
  
• ENGINEERING CANE TOAD-RESISTANT QUOLLS
  Pioneering genetic approaches to help save one of Australia's most threatened marsupials from an invasive toxic species.
  
  
• ACQUIRING VIAGEN
  Expanding conservation's most powerful genetic rescue platform by integrating the world's leading animal cloning and biobanking company into long-term species recovery strategy.

RESTORING THE RED WOLF
The American Red Wolf is the world's most endangered canid. Fewer than a handful remain in the wild, and the roughly 300 under managed care all descend from just 12 founders, representing a severe genetic bottleneck that leaves the species highly vulnerable to disease, inbreeding, and long-term decline.

To address this crisis, the Colossal Foundation and its partners at the Gulf Coast Canine Project, the Karankawa Tribe of Texas, and the American Wolf Foundation, are pioneering a new form of genetic rescue. Together, they have identified and cloned ancestral "ghost wolves" from the American Gulf Coast, animals that carry the precious genomic legacy of the pre-extinction red wolf.

In early 2025, the Foundation cloned four of these wolves: Neka Kayda, Ash, Blaze, and Cinder. Each carries 69–72% red wolf ancestry and the highest ghost lineage ever recovered. The team has also generated the first complete red wolf reference genome, a critical foundation for restoring lost diversity to America's most imperiled wolf.

ENDING THE ELEPHANT EEHV CRISIS
Elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV) is a lethal threat facing young Asian elephants, responsible for most juvenile deaths in human care and increasingly affecting wild populations. In partnership with Baylor College of Medicine, the Colossal Foundation helped fund and accelerate the development of the world's first mRNA vaccine for EEHV, an innovation that is already saving lives.

In spring 2025, two juvenile elephants at the Cincinnati Zoo, Sanjay and Kabir, were naturally exposed to the virus after receiving the vaccine. Both showed no signs of illness and made a full recovery, an outcome that would have been highly unlikely without vaccination. This milestone provided the first real-world evidence that the vaccine can prevent severe disease and protect vulnerable calves.

Since then, five U.S. zoological institutions have begun administering the vaccine, more than ten elephants have been vaccinated, and a new antigen test has been developed to monitor immune response and viral exposure. Together, these tools represent a transformative step toward ending the EEHV crisis.

"I have witnessed elephants battle EEHV and have even lost a juvenile elephant that was under my care. To be able to get a vaccine into the world that can stop this senseless loss means everything to me. This is why I joined Colossal," said Matt James, Executive Director of the Colossal Foundation. 

DECODING THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF WOLVES
In partnership with the Yellowstone Wolf Project, Grizzly Systems, and Yellowstone Forever, the Colossal Foundation is pioneering an entirely new way to monitor and protect wolves using AI-powered bioacoustics. Together, we have deployed one of the world's most advanced acoustic sensing networks across Yellowstone National Park, turning the landscape into a continuous, living soundscape.

Forty-eight autonomous recording units now listen across the ecosystem day and night, capturing thousands of wolf howls and generating one of the richest wildlife acoustic datasets ever assembled. More than 7,000 unique howling events have already been verified to train advanced AI models, and four wolves have been fitted with first-of-their-kind audio-logger collars that pair sound with GPS and motion data. With over 200,000 hours of audio now being analyzed, researchers are unlocking unprecedented insight into wolf communication, pack behavior, population trends, and emerging threats in real time.

"This is the most detailed acoustic study of wild wolves ever conducted, and it's only the beginning," said Dan Stahler of the Yellowstone Wolf Project.

By pairing cutting-edge artificial intelligence with conservation science at scale, the Colossal Foundation and its partners are opening an entirely new chapter in wildlife monitoring, one where sound becomes data, and listening becomes a tool for long-term survival.

THE SPECIES REINTRODUCTION FUND
The Colossal Foundation launched the world's first dedicated accelerator for global wildlife recovery: the Species Reintroduction Fund. Led in partnership with Re:wild, the Fund is designed to accelerate rewilding efforts worldwide. In its inaugural year, it supported projects from the Turner Endangered Species Fund, Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas, the Nez Perce Tribe, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, Viet Nature, and Centro Jambatu.

Committing more than $250,000 annually, the Fund supports every stage of species return; from genetic assessment and reintroduction planning to field releases and long-term monitoring. Through a combination of catalytic funding and deep technical collaboration, the program empowers partners around the world to restore ecosystems, strengthen genetic diversity, and give threatened species a renewed chance to thrive in the wild.

This year, the Fund supported six flagship species across six countries and ecosystems, including the Bolson tortoise, black lion tamarin, California condor, golden skiffia, Vietnam pheasant, and Wampukrum harlequin toad. Early milestones include plans to breed more than 6,000 skiffia and related native fish for river restoration in Mexico, the rewilding of 40 juvenile Bolson tortoises in New Mexico, and the three-phase release of 800 harlequin toads in Ecuador.

"Ecosystems around the world need our support to remain vibrant and resilient. Species reintroductions are critical to return functional roles to natural environments—helping species, habitats, and human communities thrive," said Wes Sechrest, CEO and Chief Scientist of Re:wild.

SAVING AMPHIBIANS FROM THE DEADLY CHYTRID FUNGUS
In partnership with the University of Melbourne, the Colossal Foundation is engineering immunity to the deadliest wildlife pandemic in history by committing $3 million to confront chytridiomycosis. The most devastating disease threat ever recorded in vertebrate history has already driven nearly 100 amphibian species to extinction and now threatens more than 500 additional species worldwide. To meet this crisis, the Colossal Foundation is advancing a radically new solution: engineering innate genetic immunity to chytrid infection.

By looking to nature for the answer, specifically the unique immune system of the alpaca, researchers are harnessing nanobody engineering, antimicrobial peptide screening, and transgene delivery in amphibian models to build the world's first comprehensive strategy for conferring disease resistance in frogs and other vulnerable species. This work includes the creation of a novel cane toad cell line for amphibian-specific expression studies and the immunization of an alpaca to generate a powerful nanobody library. The goal: to produce disease-resistant amphibians capable of surviving and repopulating in chytrid-positive environments, transforming the future of global amphibian conservation.

"Helping to stop the spread of chytrid isn't optional. We have to give frogs a fighting chance and ensure they remain a vital part of our planet's biodiversity for generations to come. This will be a game-changer for amphibian conservation," said Dr. Andrew Pask of the University of Melbourne.

ENGINEERING TOXIN-RESISTANT QUOLLS
The northern quoll, a small marsupial native to Australia, is facing a fast-moving ecological crisis. The invasive cane toad, introduced in 1935, secretes a potent bufotoxin that kills predators that attempt to eat it. As cane toads continue their rapid spread across northern Australia, quoll populations and other native marsupials are being pushed toward extinction. Traditional conservation efforts have been unable to keep pace.

In partnership with the University of Melbourne, the Colossal Foundation is developing a breakthrough genetic solution: equipping northern quolls with natural resistance to the toxin. Researchers have identified a single nucleotide change that can confer this resistance and have successfully generated the first induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) line for the species, a major step toward producing toxin-resistant quolls. This foundational achievement represents a critical advance in protecting Australia's native wildlife from one of the continent's most destructive invasive species.

"Innovation such as this is just what's needed to help turn around Australia's dire conservation record and better protect threatened species," said Euan G. Ritchie, Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at Deakin University.

EXPANDING THE FRONTIER OF GENETIC RESCUE
In 2025, Colossal took one of the most consequential steps in its history with the acquisition of Viagen Pets & Equine, the world's most advanced and successful animal cloning company. This milestone move dramatically expands what is now possible for conservation, positioning the Colossal Foundation at the forefront of species preservation and restoration. With Viagen fully integrated, Colossal now operates with an unprecedented level of scientific, technical, and operational capability to address the biodiversity crisis at scale.

Viagen now serves as a primary pillar of the Colossal Foundation's genetic rescue and species recovery efforts, supercharging its ability to preserve biodiversity and restore animals on the brink of extinction. By combining Viagen's proven cloning and biobanking platform with Colossal's genomic engineering and conservation biology expertise, the Foundation has assembled the most comprehensive species restoration toolkit in the world. Together, these capabilities ensure that genetic loss is no longer irreversible—and that vulnerable species are given every possible opportunity to survive and thrive.

Viagen's scientific track record is unmatched in the field. The company has successfully cloned 15 species, including world-first breakthroughs such as the black-footed ferret and Przewalski's horse, with cloning success rates approaching 80% in multiple species, far exceeding the published global average of approximately 2%. Viagen has also biobanked more than 40 species, including 22 threatened or endangered animals, ranging from white and black rhinos to critically imperiled bats and rodents. These industry-leading capabilities now strengthen every species-specific program within the Colossal Foundation, from targeted genetic rescue to large-scale biobanking initiatives.

"No other company comes close to what Viagen has achieved," said Ben Lamm, Founder and CEO of Colossal. "Their unmatched expertise and cloning technology stack have become the world's standard, and their application of these critical, proprietary technologies to endangered species conservation makes them an invaluable partner in advancing our global de-extinction and species preservation mission."

For more information, please visit: www.ColossalFoundation.org

ABOUT THE COLOSSAL FOUNDATION
The Colossal Foundation is a 501(c)(3) dedicated to supporting the use of cutting-edge technologies to conservation efforts globally to help prevent extinction of keystone species. The organization deploys cutting-edge de-extinction technologies and support to empower partners in the field to reverse the extinction crisis. www.ColossalFoundation.org.

ABOUT COLOSSAL
Colossal was founded by emerging technology and software entrepreneur Ben Lamm and world-renowned geneticist and serial biotech entrepreneur George Church, Ph.D., and is the first to apply CRISPR technology for the purposes of species de-extinction. Colossal creates innovative technologies for species restoration, critically endangered species protection and the repopulation of critical ecosystems that support the continuation of life on Earth. Colossal is accepting humanity's duty to restore Earth to a healthier state, while also solving for the future economies and biological necessities of the human condition through cutting-edge science and technologies. To follow along, please visit: www.colossal.com

WEBSITE & SOCIALS
Websites: www.colossal.com   /  www.colossalfoundation.org
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