Warhound, a new Texas defense startup founded by Colossal Biosciences' Ben Lamm with input from Anduril's Palmer Luckey, has raised $200 million to develop genetically modified working dogs for military and police use. The company plans to use Colossal's gene-editing and cloning expertise to breed healthier, higher-performing dogs, then fit them with Anduril hardware such as eye and ear protection and EagleEye sensor technology. Luckey helped conceive the company but holds no equity or ongoing role in it, according to Bloomberg.
theverge.com
· 2026-10-23
Warhound, a new Texas-based company founded by Anduril's Palmer Luckey and Colossal Biosciences' Ben Lamm, has raised $200 million to breed genetically engineered working dogs for the U.S. military, police and first responders. The company says it has collected blood samples from top-performing Belgian Malinois, labs and shepherds with plans to clone them, aiming for the first litter of puppies by early 2027. Initial gene-editing will target eliminating conditions like hip dysplasia, with Lamm suggesting future work could add wolf olfactory genes.
wired.com
· 2026-10-22
Ben Lamm (Colossal Biosciences) and Palmer Luckey (Anduril) have launched Warhound, a company aiming to genetically engineer dogs for bomb detection, search operations, and other military and law enforcement tasks. The startup emerged from stealth with $200 million in funding from In-Q-Tel, Sequoia, and 8VC, valuing it at $1.2 billion, and plans to biobank cell lines from top-performing breeds like Belgian Malinois and German Shepherds for gene editing.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-10-22
Filmmaker Peter Jackson assisted in acquiring an ancient moa egg, one of fewer than 40 known to survive, after a Colorado gallery put it up for auction this June. The egg has now been repatriated to New Zealand with involvement from a de-extinction startup.
gizmodo.com
· 2026-10-19
Colossal Biosciences says it has built a new AI tool that narrows down which genetic changes would be needed to recreate traits of the extinct Dodo bird. The company, founded in 2021 to pursue de-extinction projects, lists the Dodo among its target species alongside the woolly mammoth and other vanished animals. The Dodo, once native to Mauritius, was wiped out within decades of European contact in the 16th century.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-10-14
Colossal Biosciences unveiled GenoMorph, an AI platform combining 3D morphology, comparative genomics and developmental biology to identify key genes in species with scarce genetic data. The company is applying it to its dodo bird de-extinction effort, where only one dodo genome exists compared to roughly 100 genomes available for its woolly mammoth project. CEO Ben Lamm said the tool was built using developmental data from chickens, quail, ducks and pigeons alongside genetic and skull data from over 70 bird species.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-10-14
Colossal Biosciences CEO Ben Lamm discussed the company's efforts to revive extinct species, including dire wolves, woolly mammoths, dodos, Tasmanian tigers, and moa, at the CNBC AI Forum. Lamm described using AI models to reconstruct the dire wolf genome from ancient DNA from a skull and tooth, then editing gray wolf cells to create embryos carried by surrogate dogs, resulting in three pups named Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi. He said the company expects to reveal more de-extinct species within the next one to two years.
cnbc.com
· 2026-10-10
Colossal Biosciences has revealed the genetic engineering process it used to create living wolf pups carrying about 20 edited DNA segments associated with extinct dire wolves. The company says the underlying technology, rather than the pups themselves, represents the more significant advance, since it can be applied broadly to reconstruct extinct genetic traits in living animals.
gizmodo.com
· 2026-09-29
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, running October 13-15 in San Francisco, will host a fireside chat titled 'Can We Engineer Nature's Comeback?' featuring Ben Lamm, co-founder and CEO of Colossal Biosciences. The session will examine how AI and synthetic biology are being used to attempt reviving extinct species and what that means for conservation efforts.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-14
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, set for October 13-15 at San Francisco's Moscone West, will split its AI programming into two stages, adding a new Real World AI Stage alongside the existing AI Stage. The new stage focuses on physical applications of AI, including autonomous hardware, robotics, defense systems, and de-extinction science, with confirmed speakers from Nvidia, Shield AI, Colossal Biosciences, FieldAI, and Foxglove.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-02
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