Dallas de-extinction company Colossal Biosciences has announced the launch of Form Bio, a new software platform, according to a news release.
The Form Bio platform replaces code-heavy processes by offering a new technology software that allows scientists to manage large datasets, execute workflows, visualize results and collaborate with peers. The platform is the first technology corporation from Colossal and is designed to be resourceful for drug discovery, gene and therapy, manufacturing, efficiency and academic research.
"Form Bio is the missing piece in scientific discovery," Ben Lamm, co-founder and CEO of Colossal, said in the release. "When you have a big scientific endeavor like de-extincting a species, you not only need the smartest scientists in the world, you need powerful software, much of which simply hasn't existed until now. After reviewing everything on the market, we chose to create our own software solution."
Form Bio received $30 million in Series A funding from San Francisco-based JAZZ Venture Partners and Thomas Tull, lead investor at Colossal.
"Science is entering an entirely new era in which advancements will not just treat diseases, but cure them," John Spinal, managing partner at JAZZ, said in the release. "Every scientific discipline tied to these types of innovations will unavoidably require rapidly analyzing enormous volumes of data."
Kent Wakeford will transition from serving as COO at Colossal to co-CEO at Form Bio alongside Andrew Busey. Adam Milne will join Colossal as the new COO. Milne previously served as COO at BioLabs.
Colossal Biosciences was founded in 2021. Lamm is staking the future of his startup on the de-extinction of two animals: The woolly mammoth, which the company announced as it came out of stealth mode nearly a year ago, and, now, the thylacine. The thylacine was called the Tasmanian tiger in part because it's an apex predator and in part because of its stripes. But it is actually an unusual marsupial that keeps its joeys in a pouch like a kangaroo. It was known to be semi-nocturnal and rather shy. Hunters and habitat destruction drove it to extinction.
