Scientists have managed to hatch live chicks from a fully artificial egg – marking a de–extinction breakthrough that paves the way for resurrecting long–dead species.
Experts at Colossal Biosciences, the company planning to bring back the woolly mammoth, have created the first ever shell–less incubation system that mirrors a natural egg ‘as much as possible’.
The team were able to take early bird embryos, place them into an artificial shell and incubate them for 18 days while they developed.
Once the chicks were ready, they hatched from their cosy home and are now living happy, healthy lives.
The company said the development marks a critical milestone for their plans to de–extinct the South Island giant moa – an enormous bird that stood at 11.8ft (3.6 metres) tall and weighed 507lbs (230kg).
It also provides a ‘stepping stone’ for the eventual development of an artificial womb.
Colossal Biosciences said: ‘This device changes everything. We’re showing the world that we can grow this whole bird in an incubator outside of an eggshell.
‘It’s a complete game–changer. Life finds a way.’
Experts have created the first ever shell–less incubation system that mirrors a natural egg ‘as much as possible’
The artificial egg features a ‘window’ on the top, allowing for real–time visibility into every stage of embryonic development
The artificial egg device consists of a 3D–printed strong outer shell structured like a lattice to provide protection and rigidity.
Within this layer is a silicone–based membrane that allows oxygen to diffuse into the system.
Over the last 40 years there have been several attempts to create artificial eggs, but they required supplementation with large volumes of pure oxygen which caused DNA damage and impacted long–term animal health.
The permeable membrane of this new design allows oxygen to naturally transfer from the atmosphere into the egg.
This mirrors the real–life process of oxygen entering eggshells through microscopic pores.
‘How do we replicate nature but also improve upon it?’ Colossal said. ‘This is the first time the core engineering problem of artificial eggs has been solved.’
The artificial egg also features a ‘window’ on the top, allowing for real–time visibility into every stage of embryonic development.
Colossal said its device is compatible with standard commercial incubators, is manufacturable at scale and is adaptable to eggs at any size.
One of the chicks emerging from its artificial egg. Colossal said it marks a de–extinction breakthrough that paves the way for resurrecting long–dead species
Once the chicks were ready, they hatched from their cosy home and are now living happy, healthy lives
To begin the process, experts collected real chicken eggs right after they had been laid.
An embryology team thoroughly examined each egg and selected the embryos that looked most likely to hatch.
They then cracked the egg open very gently and transferred the contents into the artificial egg, which was then placed in an incubator.
Scientists ‘sprinkled’ in a nutrient that helped the embryo continue to develop. Roughly 18 days later the chick started tapping against the egg to indicate it was ready to hatch.
After hatching, all chicks were put in groups and eventually moved to a ‘graduation pen’ outside before being relocated to a large farm.
Colossal said its design could also benefit endangered animals at a time when more than half of bird species are in decline.
‘Imagine a future where we have hundreds or thousands of eggs in laboratories growing critically endangered species,’ it said.
‘These are the stepping stones that an artificial womb will be built on.’
The device consists of a 3D–printed strong outer shell structured like a lattice to provide protection and rigidity
Colossal said its device is compatible with standard commercial incubators, is manufacturable at scale and is adaptable to eggs at any size
The company said its plan to bring back the South Island giant moa has presented an incubation challenge unlike any other species in their portfolio.
Moa eggs are estimated to have been approximately 80 times the volume of a chicken egg and roughly eight times the volume of an emu egg, placing them entirely beyond the capacity of any available avian surrogate.
No living bird is large enough to serve as a host. A size–scaled artificial egg, therefore, is critical for the de–extinction of this species.
Colossal Biosciences will use genes extracted from moa bones to engineer modern birds until they very closely resemble the extinct species, which disappeared from New Zealand roughly 500 to 600 years ago.
This is the same technique that was used to transform grey wolves into animals closely resembling dire wolves.
The edited embryos will then be placed into an artificial egg to develop and eventually hatch.
‘We’ve created a novel shell–less culture system that is fully scalable and biologically accurate,’ said Professor Andrew Pask, chief biology officer at Colossal. ‘It’s a new system designed for long–term, healthy avian embryo development.
‘The genome is the blueprint, but without a place to build, it’s meaningless. The artificial egg gives us that platform: controlled, scalable, and completely independent of a surrogate.’
The company said the development marks a critical milestone for their plans to de–extinct New Zealand’s South Island giant moa – an enormous bird that stood at 3.6 metres (11.8ft) tall and weighed 230kg (507lbs)
The moa went extinct in the 15th century due to hunting and forest clearing by the first Māori settlers. Colossal Biosciences said restoring this megafauna species will help restore New Zealand’s ecosystem
Some outside experts have cautioned that there is no published scientific paper along the announcement, which limits scientific scrutiny. However, others hailed the advance as an ‘impressive act of bioengineering’.
Carles Lalueza–Fox, director of the Museum of Natural Sciences of Barcelona and a specialist in DNA recovery techniques, said: ‘Colossal has succeeded in developing an artificial egg, something for which there are no comparable precedents.
‘The most significant breakthrough lies in the permeability of the membrane, which allows gases (oxygen and carbon dioxide) to pass through.’
Alongside the moa, he said the device could be used to de–extinct other birds such as the Carolina parakeet.
Dusko Ilic, Professor of Stem Cell Sciences at King’s College London, said: ‘Recreating an extinct species such as the moa would require far more than an incubation platform, including accurate genome reconstruction, appropriate development, physiology, behaviour, welfare and ecological context.
‘Even then, the result would likely be an engineered proxy rather than a true restoration of the extinct species.
‘The most credible translational value may therefore lie in applications such as embryo rescue, endangered bird conservation and controlled generation of genome–edited avian lines, particularly if it proves reproducible, scalable and compatible with normal long–term health, rather than in de–extinction itself.’
