Tuesday 16 August 2022 05:37 PM Tasmanian tiger to be brought back with help of Chris Hemsworth: Colossal ... trends now
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Hollywood A-listers are backing a new scientific effort to bring the extinct Tasmanian tiger back to life using cutting-edge DNA technology.
Thor actor Chris Hemsworth and his brothers Luke and Liam are investors in 'de-extinction' company Colossal Biosciences which has previously announced plans to also bring the woolly mammoth back to the arctic.
The firm has now partnered with Melbourne University to provide its resources and technology to their attempt to reintroduce the Australian marsupial, also known as the Thylacine, that died out almost a century ago.
The TIGRR (Thylacine Integrated Genetic Restoration Research) lab was established with a $5million donation from the Wilson Family Trust in March - but Colossal's involvement will now supercharge the project and could halve their 10-year goal of bringing back the animal.
The Thylacine was once common in Australia thousands of years ago but went extinct a century ago (pictured)
Liam, Chris and Luke Hemsworth are investors in Colossal (pictured together)
Professor Andrew Pask, a leading marsupial evolutionary biologist, and the world's foremost Tasmanian tiger expert, is leading the 10-person team at the TIGRR lab.
That scientists will now expand to 25 along with another 15 scientists working full-time on the project at Colossal's US headquarters.
Ben Lamm, one of Colassal's founders, said when announcing the partnership with TIGRR on Tuesday that Hollywood stars including the Hemsworths and tech entrepreneurs, were excited about the company's work.
'The Hemsworth family has done a lot in broader marsupial conservation, and they are leading the charge in returning the Tasmanian devil back to the mainland and creating a population outside of Tasmania,' he said.
'I got connected to Chris and Luke when we were raising our Series A and decided to invest in the company.'
'They were incredibly passionate about not just the return of the thylacine but how the technologies Colossal is developing can be used to help with marsupial conservation and gestation. We could not be more excited for their support and involvement.'
A colorised image of a Tasmanian tiger, the last of which died in 1936 (pictured)
The Colossal team is working on bringing back extinct species with co-founders Ben Lamm (centre left) and George Church
