#Biotech #DeExtinction #SyntheticBiology #ScienceCommunication #DireWolf #Colossal

Science doesn’t need mythology. This work is awe-inspiring on its own terms.

If we let biotech become a buzzword factory, we risk undermining the very credibility that makes these breakthroughs meaningful.

But we owe the public more than catchy headlines. We owe them truthful, nuanced science. When we blur the line between storytelling and scientific accuracy, we don’t just confuse the public, we hand ammunition to those eager to discredit science altogether.

Let’s celebrate this for what it is: a landmark achievement in synthetic biology and cloning. It’s not resurrection, but it’s still groundbreaking.

So are these animals truly “de-extinct”? Or are they engineered gray wolves with ancient traits? Maybe we need a new term: chimeric species? Genetic remix? Synthetic hybrid?

If you edit 20 genes in a Labrador to give it a pug’s face, it’s still 99.9% Labrador. What do we call that animal? What if we take a chimpanzee and give it less fur and the ability to stand on two legs, is it now human?

That’s 20 edits out of ~19,000 genes. The rest? Still gray wolf.

Colossal edited 20 genes in gray wolves to resemble dire wolves: 15 taken from ancient DNA, and 5 swapped for dog-safe alternatives. But they identified 60 more genes with dramatic differences that they didn’t touch, not to mention countless others with differences.

Today, TIME declared that Colossal Biosciences had “de-extincted” the dire wolf. The feat is remarkable. But calling them the "first dire wolves to exist in over 10,000 years" is catchy, sure, but scientifically wrong. I'd prefer functionally extinct, stylistically resurrected.

Thanks to @MadeleineOudin and @kmunger for a hosting me to speak at the Converging on Cancer Symposium @ Tufts! Inspired by the research at @TuftsGSBS and @TuftsMedicalCtr driving promising cancer therapies forward 🦀🧑‍🔬

Appreciative of my PI @MadeleineOudin and lab members for their support and fun celebration! 🍾🙏🏼 Excited to have received an F30 from @theNCI - time to get to work and make real progress!!

Had a blast at #MRS2024 @TheCrick in London!! Thanks to all the organizers and speakers. I’m leaving motivated and with many new ideas thanks to beautiful talks from researchers @humsav @aesonchang and more!

Great to visit Tufts MSTP students on Medford campus during CIBR journal club! ⁦@TuftsMedSchool⁩ ⁦@TuftsGSBS⁩ ⁦@HananBloomer1⁩ ⁦@LiamHPower1⁩

Had a blast @ the Tufts MD/PhD retreat!👨‍⚕️🧑‍🔬 Big thanks to @BobSegeMD @KayEverettMDPhD @ToddMHerrington and Eric Rubin for their great advice and shoutout to my fellow students for their captivating presentations. Also proud to have won 1st place in the poster competition! @gsbs

My experiences over the last 5 years- as a female junior PI in engineering, as a mentor to young women and students from historically excluded groups, as a mother to a child with severe disabilities - have changed me and motivated me to speak up. 1/3

Time for the annual state of the lab and lab culture survey by @leslievosshall . Can’t stop smiling when looking at the word cloud generated from the words that lab members choose to describe the lab. I love what we have built here!

Now that in-person posters are back at many big conferences, here are my tips for getting through a poster presentation when you're #DisabledinSTEM - hopefully applicable across disabilities 🧵

Proud to have won 1st place in the Junior Graduate Student category at the Charlton Poster Competition hosted by @TuftsGSBS!! Presenting work from @TuftsXu Lab where a team of us are using an vivo gene editing project to treat atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease

This is the amazing science I’m fortunate enough to build off of for the next few years!