Ben Lamm, TIME100 Next Honoree, Expands Frontier with New AI Venture
Summary
Ben Lamm — co‑founder of Colossal Biosciences and newly named to TIME100 Next 2025 — is quietly building a second, technically ambitious company in the life sciences: Astromech. SEC filings show Astromech has raised $30 million in stealth funding to develop AI tools aimed at genomics and synthetic biology, from sequence inference to synthesis design and ancestral modelling.
Colossal remains high profile for its de‑extinction work (engineered woolly mammoth prototypes and recent “dire wolf” cub milestones), and Lamm’s new effort appears intended to apply advanced computation to accelerate and scale genetic science. Astromech’s careers listings point to hires in sequence reconstruction, gene regulation, protein folding and related technical areas — signalling a strong AI + biotech focus.
Key Points
- Ben Lamm named to TIME100 Next 2025 for his work at Colossal Biosciences.
- Astromech, Lamm’s stealth AI venture, has raised $30 million according to SEC filings.
- The company is building AI tooling for genomics: sequence reconstruction, synthesis design and ancestral modelling.
- Astromech’s job listings target specialists in sequence inference, gene regulation and protein folding.
- Astromech represents the convergence of generative AI and synthetic biology — a fast‑growing frontier in precision medicine and evolutionary modelling.
- Lamm has a history of founding and exiting tech ventures (Hypergiant, Conversable, Chaotic Moon), suggesting experience turning deep tech into market outcomes.
Context and relevance
The announcement — thin on public detail but confirmed by filings — matters because it underlines a broader industry trend: startups are increasingly using generative and predictive AI to tackle biological problems that were previously manual and slow. Investors are backing this convergence: a $30m raise in stealth signals confidence that AI can meaningfully speed gene design, protein folding prediction and ancestral genome modelling.
For executives, investors and researchers, Lamm’s move is notable: he pairs proven deal‑making and scaling experience with a team drawn from conservation, genomics and AI. If Astromech succeeds, it could shift workflows in synthetic biology and create new platforms for both research and commercial applications in medicine, conservation and industrial biotech.
Why should I read this?
Quick and dirty: this is where AI meets DNA — and money follows. If you care about who’s building the tools that will reshape biotech, or you’re tracking investable AI‑bio plays, this is worth a bookmark. Lamm’s track record means Astromech isn’t just an academic exercise; it’s a venture to watch.
