Gene editing company hopes to bring dodo ‘back to life’

Dodos are most closely related to pigeons, according to sequencing of the proverbially dead bird’s genome. Photograph: Marc Andreu/Courtesy of Colossal Biosciences

The dodo, a Mauritian bird last seen in the 17th century, will be brought back to at least a semblance of life if attempts by a gene editing company are successful.

Gene editing techniques now exist that allow scientists to mine the dodo genome for key traits that they believe they can then effectively reassemble within the body of a living relative.