Colossal Biosciences®✓

Breakthrough in dodo de-extinction. Bringing back the dodo is like rebuilding a lost hit from a few scratchy records. The tricky part? The arrangement, aka regulatory DNA. GenoMorph studies living birds to learn how it works. Swipe to learn more. (1/10)

Meet GenoMorph, our new AI-powered tool linking DNA to physical traits. We’re putting it to work on the dodo, flagging thousands of candidate DNA switches linked to beak size and shape. Next: testing which ones help shape that unmistakable face. (1/6)

(5/6)

(6/6)

This is beak performance. GenoMorph uses living bird data to identify candidate DNA switches linked to skull and beak shape, helping guide our dodo de-extinction work. It’s complicated science, but that’s half the fun. The other half is making skulls dance.

Our favorite is all of them 🥰 Which one does the world deserve most? (1/2)

(2/2)

This blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra) has a strut like Gu Jun Pyo. Unlike the bluebuck, which was native to southern Africa, this graceful antelope lives in India and Nepal.

An extinct bird’s egg. A Colorado auction. A very overdue trip home. 🥚🇳🇿 After roughly 60 years in a private American collection, this rare moa egg is returning to Aotearoa New Zealand. We bought it to bring it home, under Ngāi Tahu’s guidance. (1/7)

(6/7)

(7/7)

Getting genetic tools into a bird embryo that’s still developing in the egg is tough. In a new preprint, the Colossal avian team shows lipid nanoparticles can reliably deliver them with high viability.

📄 Preprint is out now on bioRxiv

The dodo and the Nicobar pigeon are family. Just with many millions of DNA differences. So which ones gave the dodo that distinct schnoz? Our CSO Dr. Beth Shapiro breaks down how our new software, GenoMorph, helps us find the DNA switches that may have shaped it.