Colossal Biosciences: Beth Shapiro

Beth Shapiro has joined Colossal Biosciences as CSO. In this role, she will oversee the continued expansion of the company's de-extinction and conservation science teams. Shapiro was previously a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, and lead of the paleogenomics laboratory at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has also served as an advisor to Colossal since its founding.

Shapiro is a MacArthur Genius Grant Award winner and a pioneer in the fields of ancient DNA and paleogenomics. During her PhD research at the University of Oxford, Shapiro generated the first DNA data from a dodo and used this to determine that this extinct animal was actually a type of pigeon. She also garnered a Royal Society university research fellowship and senior research fellowship at Balliol College, Oxford, and served as director of the Henry Wellcome Biomolecules Centre. Shapiro also held a faculty position in biology at Penn State University prior to joining UCSC in 2012.