Colossal Biosciences, the Dallas biotech company known for its dire-wolf work, has filed a lawsuit in Austin accusing a former vice president of animal sciences of stealing trade secrets and handing them to rival ventures. The company says James Kehler took confidential research with him after leaving in 2025 and used it to benefit companies working on gene-edited hypoallergenic cats and egg-based drug manufacturing.
According to the Austin American-Statesman, Colossal alleges that Kehler took secrets related to its genetic editing process and disclosed them to other companies after departing the firm. The lawsuit reportedly claims Kehler transferred confidential files from his company laptop to a personal cloud account and multiple personal devices before leaving. Colossal is pursuing claims for violations of the Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act and the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016, along with breach of contract, the paper reports.
After leaving Colossal, Kehler joined Neion Bio. That company, according to a GlobeNewswire release, is a New York company that announced in April that it had appointed James Kehler, VMD, PhD, as its Head of Avian Sciences. The release describes Kehler's prior role at Colossal as Vice President of BioSynergy, where he oversaw programs at the intersection of genome engineering and animal science.
An Egg-Based Approach to Medicine
Neion Bio's pitch, per its own announcement, centers on using frontier genetic engineering to harness what it calls nature's most prolific molecular factory — the egg — to produce biological medicines. The Statesman's reporting characterizes this as an effort to dramatically cut production costs compared with conventional drug manufacturing. Neion's own website states plainly that the company uses genetic engineering to replace native egg proteins with medical proteins.
Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News has described Neion's platform as designed for scalable production and lower costs.
The Hypoallergenic Cat Connection
Colossal's lawsuit also alleges that Kehler was publicly connected to Felix Pets, a company that genetically engineers hypoallergenic cats, and that per Colossal, Felix Pets made significant progress in the eight months preceding the lawsuit. Neither Neion Bio nor Felix Pets responded to requests for comment, per the same account.
Felix Pets is developing genetically engineered hypoallergenic cats. The GlobeNewswire release states that Kehler previously worked alongside Neion co-founder Sven Bocklandt to develop what the company calls the world's first gene-edited hypoallergenic cat, a collaboration that predates the current dispute.
A Crowded, Skeptical Field
The quest for an allergy-free cat has a bumpy history. MIT Technology Review has reported that Felix Pets founder David Avner has been trying to make an allergy-free cat since about 2004, and that Indoor Biotechnologies CEO Martin Chapman has said his lab hopes to use the gene-editing tool CRISPR to try to remove the gene that makes the Fel d 1 allergen from cat cells. Both Felix Pets and Indoor Biotechnologies have said they filed patents on the idea and that early experiments were underway, according to the magazine's reporting.
Earlier ventures in this space have stumbled badly. MIT Technology Review noted that an earlier allergy-free-cat company, Allerca, drew attention with promises of allergy-free kittens, but a 2013 ABC News report found that a kitten Allerca tried to sell reporters was an ordinary cat from a local pet breeder. That history underscores why claims in this corner of biotech tend to draw scrutiny.
Contract Terms and Where the Case Will Be Heard
Colossal's suit reportedly points to three contracts from Kehler's time at the company.
Under federal law, a trade-secret owner may bring a civil action when the trade secret relates to a product or service used in, or intended for use in, interstate or foreign commerce, according to 18 U.S.C. § 1836. That statutory language doesn't itself resolve whether Colossal's specific claims meet that bar — that's for the court to determine as the case proceeds.
Colossal has built its public profile on headline-grabbing genetic engineering projects, including its dire-wolf work. The company says it also pursues programs in engineering cats and egg-based delivery systems — the same general territory now at the center of its dispute with Kehler.
