Fungal pathogens — like those depicted in the hit video game and HBO series The Last of Us — have long been a staple of the sci-fi community for their otherworldly parasitic nature, but the impacts of these creatures can go far beyond fiction. Thankfully, the Colossal Foundation is on the front line of finding a cure.
First observed in the 1970s, chytrid fungus — known scientifically as Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis — is a highly infectious fungal disease considered the most deadly pathogen ever described by science. Found in over 60 countries but particularly prevalent in Australia and Central and South America, the chytrid fungus is known for causing chytridiomycosis in amphibians, a disease with a mortality rate of 100% in some frog populations.
“Chytrid is this unprecedented pandemic of wildlife,” Anthony Waddle, a conservation biologist at Macquarie University in Sydney, told The New York Times. “We’re watching species and populations blink out.”
Unlike mammals, an amphibian’s skin plays a unique physiological role in respiration, excretion, and the absorption of water and electrolytes. Invading the surface level of an amphibian’s skin, chytridiomycosis causes irreparable damage to the keratin layer, causing it to degrade and fall off in patches. Infected individuals usually die within 21 days, as the skin cannot perform its critical physiological functions.
As indispensable pest controllers, bioindicators of environmental health, food sources, and symbols of good fortune around the world, protecting amphibians from chytridiomycosis has become a major concern of the scientific community, with researchers turning to novel methods like providing frogs with thermal shelters (the equivalent of a sauna) to stave off infection.
The Colossal Foundation: Funding the Fight Against Fungal Disease
In a groundbreaking effort to further advance research and conservation efforts against chytridiomycosis, the Colossal Foundation — the nonprofit organization founded by de-extinction company Colossal Biosciences — has announced an initial $1 million donation of its $3 million, three-year commitment to the Pask Lab at the University of Melbourne, Australia’s top university.
“This funding will allow us to finally test a novel approach that we have recently been developing. It will exploit new immunology approaches and information from sequencing strategies that have only recently been accessible,” said Dr. Stephen Frankenberg, who will be leading research into developing widespread immunity to chytridiomycosis among amphibians using novel genetic strategies like genomic sequencing and multiplex gene editing.
Created to leverage Colossal Biosciences’ scientific breakthroughs toward crucial conservation projects, the Colossal Foundation expects that funding this project will build upon its technological advancements to de-extinct the woolly mammoth, dodo, and Tasmanian tiger.
“We built the Colossal Foundation to be able to take our technology and our relationships and apply them to the most pressing biodiversity challenges of our time, immediately,” said Ben Lamm, the CEO and co-founder of Colossal Biosciences, in a press release. “Working on chytrid with novel gene-editing technologies is exactly the sort of work we want to be supporting.”
Using the monstrously invasive cane toad as a model species, this research will apply the principles of transgene expression to leverage adjacent species’ immunity to chytridiomycosis as a means for bolstering the toad’s immune system. This newfound immunity can then be applied to a variety of threatened amphibian species like the great spotted tree frog, green and golden bell frog, and corroboree frog, to provide populations a chance to rebound.
“Helping to stop the spread of chytrid is a necessity to ensure healthy ecosystems globally,” explained Matt James, director of the Colossal Foundation. “This isn’t optional. We have to give frogs a fighting chance and ensure they remain a vital part of our planet’s biodiversity for generations to come. This imperative is why we invested in the work that Dr. Frankenberg and Dr. Pask are committed to.”
Fungal Pathogens: A Pop Culture Pandemic
Zoonotically spread by water and touch with the ability to live on its host for anywhere from weeks to months to years, chytridiomycosis not only resembles the nature and spread of fungal outbreaks popularized in series like The Last of Us, but also mimics the unprecedented impacts that make them such compelling television.
While The Last of Us’ cordyceps take full control of humanity with zombie-like mutations that lead to cannibalistic urges, chytridiomycosis similarly impacts amphibians’ feeding and movement patterns but instead alters their behaviors in ways that make them more susceptible to mortality.
“To see a frog die of chytrid is probably the worst experience I’ve ever had,” Anthony Waddle told Yale Environment 360. “You’re watching the soul of nature leave it.”
If not eradicated, like the fictional cordyceps outbreak, chytridiomycosis will continue to lead to widespread mass dieoffs that can be difficult to track or go long unnoticed given amphibians’ swift decomposition rate.
Today, as the International Union for Conservation of Nature considers 41% of amphibians under threat, the disease has been responsible for the extinction of at least 90 amphibian species worldwide and significant declines in 1 out of every 16 amphibian species known to the scientific community.
“Honestly, before it happened, I didn’t believe it,” Dr. Vance Vredenburg, a biology professor at San Francisco State University who published a recent study on the pathogen’s pervasiveness in Africa told CNN. “Scientists did not believe that a fungal pathogen could (affect) hundreds of species. But in fact, the nightmare story is true. This single pathogen has caused the biggest die-off of vertebrates that’s ever been recorded.”
He continues by saying that chytridiomycosis has “changed the way that scientists view diseases and their ability to really control wildlife populations.”
While fungal pathogens and their eradication efforts are nothing short of unconventional, projects of this nature that are backed by high-profile organizations like the Colossal Foundation are the first step to teaching the public that diseases like chytridiomycosis are more than the subject of a hit television show and continue to have devastating real world impacts.
As Dr. JJ Apodaca, executive director of the U.S. nonprofit Amphibian and Reptile Conservancy, told CNN, “My biggest desire would be that people simply understood that these problems exist.
Much like the momentary discourse surrounding shows like The Last of Us, Apodaca warns that real life threats like chytridiomycosis “get some big flash in the pan news event and then the next day, it’s the next problem … But meanwhile, our wildlife, our native amphibians and reptiles are just getting hammered.”
With the three-year funding of this research, the Colossal Foundation and Pask Lab hope that this global problem and its potential solutions can captivate global audiences in a way that makes them care about conservation that much more than their favorite television shows.
