Colossal Bioscience's Multidisciplinary Science Approach Makes Major Breakthrough: Artificial Avian Eggs

Colossal founder Ben Lamm describes a breakthrough in creating artificial eggs to support de-extinction of extinct bird species. The work frames de-extinction as a biology problem wrapped in engineering, requiring an incubation system that can scale without relying on existing surrogates. Restoring species such as the South Island Giant Moa involves more than reconstructing ancient genomes and editing PGCs; it requires building a new incubation system. Colossal’s approach combines biology, materials science, and engineering to re-engineer the egg system for greater scalability and control. The effort targets bird conservation needs as well, given that thousands of bird species are known or suspected to be declining.

"“Every new scalable system for de-extinction is ultimately a biology problem wrapped in an engineering problem. The artificial egg is a perfect example,” said Lamm. “Restoring species like the South Island Giant Moa isn't just about reconstructing ancient genomes and editing PGCs. It requires building an entirely new incubation system where no surrogate exists and scales in ways that ordinary biology simply doesn't. At Colossal, we didn't just replicate the egg - we re-engineered it from first principles to create something more scalable and controllable.”"

"“We are bringing together biology, materials science, and engineering to solve one of nature's most elegant systems.” In today's case, the creation of an artificial egg for avian reproduction. That may seem unimportant until you learn that more than 5,200 different species of birds, which is just shy of half the world's total, are known or suspected to have declining populations."

"Colossal founder Ben Lamm and the broader Colossal team have announced a major breakthrough for the development of artificial eggs designed to help restore extinct bird species through a completely re-imagined and engineered egg system. For the company that brought back dire wolves in 2025, this latest achievement marks its eighth major scientific milestone in the past year."

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