About this episode

Ben Lamm discusses the technology and business behind Colossal Biosciences and Astromech, focusing on de-extinction and AI applications in biology.

Ben Lamm is the Co-founder and CEO of Colossal Biosciences + their AI spinout, Astromech . Colossal is the $12 billion de-extinction company using genome engineering, AI and reproductive technologies to bring extinct species back to life, while Astromech is its AI biology spinout, now valued at $3.8 billion. We went inside Colossal’s lab to see its Gen 2 woolly mice and sat down with Ben to discuss the technology behind the dire wolf, the race to bring back the woolly mammoth, and the much bigger business being built underneath de-extinction. Colossal has raised $635 million , including a recent $400 million round that was originally targeted at $200 million . Ben explains why he still believes Colossal is “one of the most undervalued companies in the world,” and how technologies developed inside the company are creating entirely new businesses. Astromech , the AI biology spinout Co-founded by Lamm and George Church, just raised $20 million at a $3.8 billion valuation, bringing total funding to $60 million . Astromech is using evolutionary and multispecies genomic data to build AI models designed to predict biological change, with potential applications across cancer, disease and…

People in this episode

Host: Molly O'Shea

Guest: Ben Lamm

Topics covered

• de-extinction
• genome engineering
• AI in biology
• funding
• biological change
• mammoths
• evolutionary data

Keywords

• Colossal Biosciences
• Astromech
• de-extinction
• AI
• genome editing
• woolly mammoth
• funding

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Colossal Biosciences, Astromech, George Church

Products: Gen 2 woolly mice, woolly mammoth, dire wolf, AI models

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