Overview
- A memorandum of understanding announced Thursday, June 25, pairs the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with Colossal Biosciences to collect and cryopreserve cells, reproductive tissues and genomic DNA from roughly 2,300 species on the Endangered Species Act list.
- Colossal says it will invest tens of millions of dollars to build and operate a distributed BioVault network and to generate whole‑genome reference sequences that it will deposit in open repositories with limited sensitivity restrictions.
- The Fish and Wildlife Service will set collection priorities and provide field and regulatory authority while Colossal will analyze, store and manage samples at its facilities in Dallas and partner sites.
- The memorandum runs for five years, can be ended by either party, and includes clauses that let Colossal access biobanked material for research and retain samples it collected with its own resources, creating legal ambiguity about long‑term public custody.
- Conservationists and geneticists praise the potential for genetic rescue and assisted reproduction but warn the plan raises governance, access and ethical questions and could divert attention from habitat protection and funding for on‑the‑ground recovery.