Biomedical Engineer Helping To Bring Back Extinct Species

Ben Collerton MS’23 is helping make what seems like science fiction a reality.

The University of Texas at Dallas alum works as a senior research associate for Dallas-based Colossal Biosciences, which is using bioengineering technologies to revive animal species no longer found on Earth, including the woolly mammoth, the dire wolf and the dodo.

“Working at the forefront of science and trying to expand our current technological limitations is every scientist’s dream,” said Collerton, who earned a master’s degree in biomedical engineering from the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science. “The technologies we are working to develop have the potential to have such far-reaching implications outside of just our current projects.”

Born in England and raised in New Zealand, Collerton came to the United States for college and earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Texas State University before attending UT Dallas. He always wanted a career in medicine — either in research, developing medical devices or becoming a doctor. He thought a bioengineering graduate degree would prepare him for a number of medical careers.

At UTD, Collerton took a course on gene editing and the gene-editing tool CRISPR taught by Dr. Leonidas Bleris, a professor of bioengineering who invited him to join his laboratory.

“Dr. Bleris is an amazing mentor and principal investigator,” Collerton said. “It is unlikely my path would have led to Colossal without Dr. Bleris opening the opportunity for me to work in his lab. His mentorship and the teaching of his lab members gave me the experiences and skills that led me to my Colossal internship and the career I have now.”

As an intern for Colossal, Collerton designed, constructed and tested gene-editing tools to make changes in mouse DNA required for cell-line generation. He also worked on Colossal’s project to revive the dire wolf.

In 2023, Collerton joined the company’s avian genomics team focused on “de-extincting” the dodo, a large flightless bird that at one time could only be found on Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. By the late 1600s, barely 100 years after its discovery, the dodo was extinct.

“The dodo is commonly referred to as the first symbol of direct, human-caused extinction,” Collerton said. “This makes it a perfect candidate to be the first avian species to be de-extincted, with the technologies we develop laying the foundation to expand workflows to other endangered and extinct avian species.”

Colossal scientists sequenced the extracted DNA of the dodo from 500-year-old skeletal remains. With a complete genetic blueprint, the avian team is working to modify the DNA of a Nicobar pigeon to produce a dodo eventually.

“With no living tissue existing from extinct species, we have to rely on editing the closest relative species in order to reverse the divergence that has occurred,” Collerton said.

Collerton and his fellow scientists use gene-editing tools like CRISPR to make changes to phenotypes, or genetic characteristics, of a species’s DNA.

“You can essentially think of what we do as using natural versions of scissors and tape to change, rearrange or replace sections of a rope,” he said. “Unique tools give us the ability to cut, paste or exchange DNA in precise, predictable ways, which ultimately gives us the ability to change and reprogram the building blocks of life.”

The genetic engineering of a dodo is a slow, meticulous process that will ultimately take years of work before success can be realized.

“I think the most complicated side of being a genome engineer is theorizing the solutions to complex problems and conceptualizing the potential avenues for necessary technological development,” Collerton said. “The hands-on lab work becomes easy with practice, but the abstract problem-solving and discussions can be both equally fun and frustrating.”

Colossal recently announced it is working with a research center in New Zealand to bring the South Island giant moa back from extinction. The work, like that for the dodo, will be done by the avian team, which will involve Collerton.

Colossal also aims to clone certain endangered animal species to save them before they become extinct and thus, in the long term, improve the Earth’s biodiversity.

“Behind the headline-grabbing de-extinction projects, every technology we work with to de-extinct a species can be directly applied to endangered species conservation, to preserve existing ecosystems, as well as restore past ones,” Collerton said.