Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance. Now next, a biotech company that aims to resurrect lost creatures has hatched live chicks in an artificial environment. I'm joined by Andrew Pask, who's Chief Biology Officer with Colossal. Andrew, you're very welcome to the programme. Thanks for having me. Delighted to have you with us. So will you explain the term de-extinction to me?
Yeah, it is just like it sounds.
Chapter 2: What is de-extinction and why is it important?
It is the process of bringing back extinct animals.
Why? Why would anybody want to do this?
Well, the species that we're focused on at Colossal are ones that played critically important roles in ecosystems. They were driven to extinction by us, by humans. And we know that by bringing them back, it's not just, you know, undoing the wrong that we did, but also will stabilize those ecosystems so they can support, you know, hundreds of other species within them from also going extinct.
Some critics, though, argue that you're potentially introducing animals into an environment where they are not suited to now and that that may present its own difficulties for the species currently living on Earth.
Yeah, I think, you know, all the ones that we're bringing back currently are species that lived in more contemporary times. So within the last few hundred years. And so for those, the environments really haven't changed that much. In fact, they've become degraded because of the absence of those animals.
So putting them back into the landscapes will actually help repair a lot of the damage, not only to the animals, but also the plants and the landscape itself.
Talk to me about this artificial egg that hatched live chicks. In layman's terms, how did that work?
Yeah, so this has been a major breakthrough for us. So we're working on a couple of extinct bird species, one of them being the dodo and the other one being the moa, which is a three metre tall bird species from New Zealand. So the biggest bird that ever lived on Earth. And in order to do a lot of this work, we have to be able to do things like genetic manipulation of bird embryos.
And that's really challenging because they develop inside an eggshell, which makes it really difficult. And so what we've done is engineered this artificial egg, which really just enables them to develop exactly as they would inside the shell itself. But in a vessel that's really accessible, we can actually see them going through the entire process of development.
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Chapter 3: How does Colossal plan to bring back extinct species?
And also, you know, obviously in that movie they were bringing back a big animal that would eat people and lived 60 million years ago, and the planet has changed a lot since then. But something like the Tasmanian tiger and, you know, some of the other species we've worked on, they've only been extinct for 100 years or not so much longer than that.
The environment's still intact and there is someone to put them back into. And so a very different scenario to Jurassic Park, but similar technology and something we really need to build a healthy planet.
It is fascinating, Andrew, and thank you for telling us about it.
Chapter 4: What breakthrough has been made with artificial eggs?
Andrew Pask, their chief biology officer with a company called Colossal. What's your view? WhatsApp us 087 1400 106. The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance.