#949 From Mammoths to Humans: The Case for Gene Editing with Eriona Hysolli

Can today’s technology really prevent tomorrow’s diseases?

Today, we're talking to Eriona Hysolli, biologist and co-founder of Manhattan Genomics. We discuss why preventing genetic disease before birth is a more powerful idea than treating it in adulthood, how the UK quietly pioneered a procedure that most of the world still considers off-limits, why the loudest opposition to gene editing often comes from bioethicists rather than the public, and what it would actually take to engineer traits — from woolly mouse hair to human limb regeneration — with enough certainty to act on.

All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! 

To learn more about Eriona, connect with her on LinkedIn.

About Eriona Hysolli

Eriona Hysolli completed her PhD work at Yale University working on derivation and characterization of human induced pluripotent stem cells and the role of micro RNAs during reprogramming. She then went on to do postdoctoral training in George Church’s lab where she published studies on Genomically recoded bacteria - mammalian co- culture systems, multiplex genome engineering approaches for human genome recoding. Furthermore, in his laboratory she derived the first reprogrammed African elephant iPSCs and led the woolly mammoth de-extinction efforts, work that she carried forward at Colossal Biosciences as head of biological sciences. There she led the efforts to de-extinct the woolly mammoth, working on Proboscidean comparative genomics and reference genome assemblies, multiplex editing in embryo for de-extinction, Asian elephant iPSC derivation and stem cell technologies, as well as biobanking efforts for elephant conservation. In 2023, she was selected as one of Time100 Next luminaries for her work on mammoth de-extinction.