Recently, Colossal Biosciences, a genetics company based in the United States, released some seemingly groundbreaking research towards their eventual goal of bringing the mammoth back from the dead, specifically regarding genetics research carried out in mice. This research has made itself well known within the global news sphere, getting coverage from the BBC, the Guardian, the Financial Times, CNN, and many well-regarded scientific outlets.
Colossal Biosciences, led by George Church and Ben Lamm – two massively well-known names in the bioscience community – has the ultimate aim of mammoth de-extinction. Until they reach such great heights, they have to work at a much smaller scale with mice. The recent research involved creating the colossal woolly mouse. Despite their name, these are regular-sized and are instead named after the company, unfortunately.
To do this work, Colossal took DNA samples from the ears of the mice and tweaked the genetic makeup. However, not all is as it seems.
The overarching claim of this press release is that the mouse research has a direct impact on that of the woolly mammoth, but this is a stretch. The genetic tweaks made have previously been highly documented, including Fgf5, which inhibits the FGF5 gene and hence allows the mice to grow longer hair, which was initially discovered back in 1987. The same themes are consistent for other genes, including Fam83g, Frzd6, Mc1r and TGM3. Additionally, the woolly mice used in promotional material also received an additional 2 genes, further boosting hair growth.
The claimed link between mice and mammoths is weak, as they carry either non-functional or truncated versions of the genes that worked in mice, treating the mice as more of a predictive model than anything for this research. As Beth Shapiro, Chief Science Officer at Colossal, put it: “It is an important step toward validating our approach to resurrecting traits that have been lost to extinction and that our goal is to restore.”
The reality of these experiments is that only a few mice ended up with these luscious, woolly coats. The majority either had no impact or had much less impressive or aesthetic results.
I must give credit where I can; it is a massive feat to do this many genetic modifications at once in CRISPR, but it should have been advertised as that, not some miracle mammoth breakthrough.
I am not one to be overly sceptical, but I am not a fan of this ‘breed exotic animals to study them’ outlook on nature. Whilst it is a cycle that we as humans, unfortunately, add to, I do not agree that bringing them back is necessary.
This “breaking news” can be put down to a PR masterclass from Colossal, using their established brilliance and members to make their research seem like it has significantly more weight for their cause than it has, and the worst part is, that the media bit the dangling promise of woolly mammoths, placing Lamm and Church on a pedestal.
This precedent of being able to stretch the truth and the real utility of your research is a worrying idea for the scientific community, as it goes against what is expected of these researchers and organisations.
