Colossal Reports 100% Development Rate for Artificial Womb

Colossal Biosciences reported that its artificial womb platform has achieved a 100% development rate in current laboratory tests, and that the remaining technical challenge is reproducing the chemical signals that move embryos through early developmental stages. The company posted the update on its website this week.

The Dallas-based biotech describes the system as an ectogenesis platform designed to support full gestation outside a maternal uterus by supplying oxygen, nutrients and hormones, removing waste and monitoring growth. Colossal developed the system at its Australian lab under Chief Biology Officer Andrew Pask and says hardware and software components are complete.

Colossal tested the platform using the fat-tailed dunnart, a small Australian marsupial with a 13-day gestation. The team guided embryos through three major developmental stages while using a dialysis-like apparatus combined with artificial intelligence models and proprietary algorithms to track physiological signals and adjust nutrient, gas and chemical levels in real time. During development work, the group periodically arrested growth to compare body patterning and health indicators with natural benchmarks.

Andrew Pask wrote that the team now observes “very high rates of development-100%” in the optimized trials. The company also reported that around 25% of fertilized eggs fail under normal conditions inside an egg, and that, using the platform in other trials, it has hatched 26 chicks and is monitoring their growth.

Colossal’s CEO Ben Lamm described the current work as focused on chemical programming of development and wrote, “We designed the system so you just have to tweak all the chemical cueing. This is now a chemical cueing thing.” The company says engineers will mainly need to refine chemical signals rather than change hardware or software.

Colossal stated the artificial womb is not part of its plan to produce a woolly mammoth calf by late 2028. The company said it holds the intellectual property for the platform and defended its ethical framework, arguing controlled ex-utero development could improve survival outcomes in some conservation and reproductive applications. A company spokesperson added that conservation-related technologies will be made open source.

Colossal has expanded reproductive engineering across several projects in the past year, reporting the birth of three dire wolf pups in April 2025 using ancient DNA and later conducting commercial cloning work. The company says it will continue refining chemical cueing and move from laboratory demonstrations toward larger-scale trials to validate the system across species.