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George Church, Ph.D. and his team are developing breakthrough genetic technologies and using them to bring back key mammoth genes to make endangered elephants safer and to reverse climate change. Join his presentation on these topics followed by audience discussion with George and Colossal CEO Ben Lamm.

The science of genomics (reading and writing DNA) impacts many aspects of medicine, agriculture, history, forensics and even data storage. So far, the transition of species from endangered to extinct has been uni-directional and accelerating. New technologies are aimed to change that.

The de-extinction of many genes has demonstrated restoration of ancient (often desirable) functions, which can provide much-needed functional diversity, bridging vast expanses of time and space. Combined with increasingly successful rewilding of species all over the globe, these enable tackling big problems like the ongoing erosion of 1400 billion tons of carbon (much as methane) from the Arctic. The talk will also describe experiences and experiments in Northern siberia with the Zimov team and wild animals at Pleistocene Park.

Collaboration between Harvard and Colossal aims to place extinct animal proxies (such as arctic elephants) into habitats so they can begin reversing the detrimental effects of climate damage (enabling species diversity, better photosynthesis and albedo and compacting snow for thermal conductance). Along the way, new technologies are arising, including in vitro production of gametes and fetuses and extensive genome editing and functional testing.

Streaming live here on explorers.org, our Facebook Live, and our YouTube Channel – Monday, November 1 at 7:00 pm ET.

Speakers

George Church, Ph.D.

Professor at Harvard and MIT, Co-Founder of Colossal

He has pioneered, since 1974, nucleic acid reading, writing, editing & recoding. He is co-author of 600 papers, 155 patent publications & books, “Regenesis” and “Woolly”. He developed methods for the first genome sequence (1994) & ten-million-fold cost reductions since. He co-initiated three Genome Projects: GP-Read-1984, GP-Write-2016, PGP-2005 (open-access personal genomes) & the BRAIN Initiative (2011). He has co-founded 38 companies covering the above topics plus machine learning for protein engineering, tissue reprogramming, animal-derived organ transplants, data storage & microscopy. He is director of Synthetic Biology at the Wyss Institute. Honors include NAS, NAE, Bower award for Science and Time 100. He has traveled extensively in two dozen countries & has enjoyed vertical-face rockclimbing, extreme swimming & grandchildren.

Ben Lamm

Co-Founder & CEO, Colossal

Ben Lamm is the co-founder and CEO of Colossal. Ben is a serial technology entrepreneur driven to solve the most complex challenges facing our planet. For over a decade, Ben has built disruptive emerging technology businesses. In addition to leading and growing his own companies, he is passionate about emerging technology, science, space and climate change. Active in angel investing, incubators and startup communities, Ben invests in software and emerging tech, and is deeply engaged in the technology, defense and climate change communities.