By Paul Knoepfler – STAT –
The company that claimed to revive the dire wolf continues to raise ethical questions
De-extinction firm Colossal Biosciences announced Tuesday that it was acquiring animal cloning firm Viagen. The same day, retired NFL all-star Tom Brady had a related announcement of his own. He said that he had cloned his deceased pit bull, Lua, with help from Colossal.
This has been a notable year for Colossal and its Chief Scientific Officer Beth Shapiro. The firm, co-founded by George Church and Ben Lamm, sparked controversy in the spring when it claimed successful de-extinction of dire wolves. Scientists including me pushed back, but Colossal wouldn’t back down from the claims. It all seems to come down to different definitions of de-extinction.
