Top scientist stole trade secrets from startup that wants to bring back extinct species: bombshell suit

Colossal Biosciences – a futuristic startup working to bring back extinct species including the woolly mammoth – is suing one of its former top scientists for allegedly stealing trade secrets and sharing the data with competing labs. In a lawsuit filed Friday morning in Texas federal court in Austin, Colossal accused James Kehler, formerly its vice president of animal sciences and later of BioSynergy, of “dishonesty, greed, and the betrayal of the confidential science at the heart of Colossal’s mission.” The Dallas-based firm – which has so far succeeded in creating “woolly mice” that bear woolly mammoth traits and gray wolves similar to the extinct dire wolf – claimed Kehler breached three of the contracts he signed with the company after he left for rival labs. Forensic analysis of Kehler’s Colossal work laptop found that prior to leaving the company, he moved files containing confidential information to a personal cloud account and multiple personal devices, the suit alleged. Kehler did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.As a vice president at Colossal, Kehler – who lives in Maryland – had access to the company’s most sensitive scientific information, including data on its avian programs, like work on the dodo bird and the moa, a large, wingless bird formerly found in New Zealand, according to the lawsuit.Around April 14, 2026, after resigning from Colossal, Kehler joined Neion Bio – a competing lab – as Head of Avian Sciences and “used and disclosed Colossal trade secret and confidential information,” the suit alleged. He has also been linked to Felix Pets, a startup that claims to use gene-editing technology to develop hypoallergenic cats – a process that “depends on the same research and know-how underlying Colossal’s de-extinction work,” according to the suit.Colossal is seeking damages, alleging Kehler “pivoted from scientist to thief.” The lab argued that the safeguarding of its pro...