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Ayan
@gmo
Babe wake up the de-extinction company Colossal Bioscience that has been studying mammoth DNA just dropped “the woolly mice” Actual quote from the CEO: “They are significantly cuter than we anticipated” https://www.wired.com/story/scientists-just-created-a-woolly-mouse-with-mammoth-like-fur
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keccers
@keccers.eth
What’s your take? Valid breakthrough or publicity stunt
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Ayan
@gmo
So my understanding is these are mouse specific mutations not the integration of mammoth genes and so there are scientists that are skeptics about this translating at all for the de-extinction project (article in major scjence journal is more skeptic, wired and guardian are more hype tbh: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00684-1 ) to colossal’s goals for integrating mammoth qualities into Asian elephants I think it’s more of an interesting breakthrough for functional genomics and our ability to predict and validate genetic mutations (even inspired from extinct species) in a living model. This was I think 8 or 9 modification to less than 10 genes but I guess the idea is to imagine what that looks like when we can effectively functionally modify larger groups of genes But yea I think the mice were too cute for them to resist sharing lol
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keccers
@keccers.eth
@codon mentioned this in my replies too — that the fact that these are mice genes makes it somewhat less relevant for the de extinction project I wonder how much of this if any is driven by a need from their investors to show momentum and progress
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Ayan
@gmo
Tbh from their inception scientists have been skeptical and calling this company a publicity stunt. I think it’s part of their culture. I think they thrive on the controversy. So I wonder if it’s more of just a shift in narratives for what’s working in biotech discovery. I think cowboys are in. Josie’s company the las Angela’s project ( website: building.life) is also this sort of click baitey bioengineering that is seemingly purposefully aiming for controversy and doing embryo engineering to build a dragon. It’s like a biotech/bioengineering new age vibe shift.
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keccers
@keccers.eth
I know Jo, she lives in ATX. One thing that surprised me was how few cowboys there actually are. She told me she got fundraising rejections on vague “ethics” grounds. It’s not in line with how I see financiers; I told her I doubted it was actually ethics
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