{"id":439562,"date":"2026-09-18T04:40:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T04:40:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/439562\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T04:40:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T04:40:23","slug":"colossal-foundation-iucn-launch-4m-species-partnership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/439562\/","title":{"rendered":"Colossal Foundation, IUCN Launch $4M Species Partnership"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Karankawa Tribe of Texas named the first cloned “ghost wolf” pup Neka Kayda, meaning “Ghost Daughter,” and recognized her as the tribe’s totem animal\u2014one of many milestones in the Foundation’s inaugural Impact Report. [Photo: Courtesy of Colossal]<\/p>\n

The Colossal Foundation and the IUCN Species Survival Commission launched a four-year, $4 million partnership to accelerate species conservation. The foundation is the nonprofit arm of Dallas-based de-extinction company Colossal Biosciences.<\/p>\n

Tools at the initiative\u2019s disposal include a new grant program for neglected species and Colossal Biosciences technology. The technology encompasses Colossal\u2019s genome sequencing, gene editing, biobanking and AI-assisted reproductive capabilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cExtinction prevention is a race against time, and the people closest to threatened species should have access to every responsible tool that can help them win that race,\u201d Matt James, executive director of The Colossal Foundation, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is not simply to respond to extinction, but to help prevent it \u2014 and to turn today\u2019s most promising technologies into practical, widely available tools for species recovery,\u201d James said.<\/p>\n

Assessing species conservation<\/p>\n

The Switzerland-based IUCN commission comprises more than 11,000 experts in 186 countries. The commission called its Red List of Threatened Species the world\u2019s most comprehensive source of information about species conservation. The list features more than 49,500 threatened species.<\/p>\n

Vivek Menon, chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, said in a statement that the organization has spent more than 70 years \u201cbuilding the scientific foundation the world relies on to understand which species are in trouble and why.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the volume of the Red List, most of the world\u2019s biodiversity has not been gauged, the commission said. Its partnership with The Colossal Foundation will use data, AI-enabled tools and other technology to expand the list and identify promising conservation-related technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we have often lacked is the capacity to move at the scale the crisis demands,\u201d Menon said. \u201cThis partnership with The Colossal Foundation gives our network access to tools and resources that can help us direct this knowledge to threatened species and slow down the threat of extinction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Supporting neglected species<\/p>\n

The partners said they seek to help species that many conservation groups overlook. This includes certain fungi, plants, invertebrates, fishes and reptiles.<\/p>\n

The grant program will award money to benefit neglected species, the partners said. In addition, the partners will create a global education campaign about species conservation and biodiversity.<\/p>\n

Building on previous collaborations<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time The Colossal Foundation has teamed up with the IUCN commission.<\/p>\n

The foundation supported the Reverse the Red species preservation campaign, sponsored by the commission and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums. It also backed the commission\u2019s group dedicated to Asian elephants. Furthermore, the foundation worked with the commission and the Samoan Conservation Society to save certain species of pigeons and doves.<\/p>\n

Ben Lamm, co-founder and CEO of Colossal Biosciences, said collaborating with the IUCN commission \u201cis both a privilege and a call to action.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTogether, we can break down the barriers between scientific innovation and frontline conservation \u2014 putting powerful technologies into the hands of experts around the world and deploying them with the urgency, ambition and scale the extinction crisis demands,\u201d Lamm said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Established by Colossal Biosciences<\/a> in 2024, The Colossal Foundation boosted its funding<\/a> to $100 million last year.<\/p>\n

\tR E A D\u00a0\u00a0 N E X T\t<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Dallas-based foundation is partnering with New York City worker advocacy nonprofit Lift Our Voices on the free Agentic AI Academy, a five-day pilot for community college learners.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The North Texas-based foundation and educational drone developer Robolink teamed up for the 2026-27 Aerial Drone Competition. Student teams will compete at events where they build technical, teamwork, leadership and problem-solving skills.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Troy Bertram, an Army veteran and former Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services executive, brings a passion for public service and public-sector partnerships to the Arlington-based foundation.<\/p>\n

\t\"Texas<\/a><\/p>\n

Truist\u2019s Renda Mathew is board chair-elect for the Dallas nonprofit. The foundation, which invests nearly $5 million a year in grants, research and leadership programs, also added executives from TI, Hunt Oil and WBR Partners to its board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Karankawa Tribe of Texas named the first cloned “ghost wolf” pup Neka Kayda, meaning “Ghost Daughter,” and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[22544,22548,152209,102,104,103,124894,7809,152210,152211,8781,152212],"class_list":["post-439562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-ben-lamm","tag-colossal-biosciences","tag-colossal-foundation","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-de-extinction","tag-endangered-species","tag-iucn-species-survival-commission","tag-matt-james","tag-species-conservation","tag-vivek-menon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}