Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Tom Brady reveals his dog is a clone tying the news to Colossal’s big move into pet cloning

Originally posted on Dice City Sports | By Robert LaMar | Last updated Nov 4, 2025 10:39 PM ET

Tom Brady dropped a headline grabbing nugget on Tuesday: his family dog, Junie, is a genetic twin of the Brady household’s late pup, Lua. The seven-time Super Bowl champion disclosed the detail in conjunction with biotech company Colossal Biosciences announcing it has acquired animal cloning firm ViaGen Pets & Equine a deal that signals a major scaling-up of consumer pet cloning and conservation projects.

How Brady did it

Brady said the process began with a non-invasive blood draw from Lua before she passed in 2023. Colossal then leveraged cloning tech now folded into the company through ViaGen to produce Junie, a pit bull mix genetically identical to Lua. “I love my animals. They mean the world to me and my family,” Brady said in the acquisition announcement.

Why this acquisition matters

Tom Brady revealed that his current dog Junie is a clone of his late dog Lua, who died in December 2023, per @baileykrich

The dogs were cloned by Colossal Biosciences, a biotech company that Brady is an investor in, using blood collected prior to Lua's death pic.twitter.com/1yEYrjILqz

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) November 4, 2025

Colossal, the high-profile “de-extinction” startup co-founded with geneticist George Church. Framed the ViaGen purchase as its first major acquisition, positioning the company to become a “global cloning superpower.” The deal broadens Colossal’s business from moonshot species-restoration programs into mainstream pet cloning, banking, and reproduction services under a single umbrella.

The bigger ambitions and the controversy

Beyond pets, Colossal has promoted headline projects woolly mammoth, dodo, and even dire-wolf–related work designed to push conservation genetics forward (and spark debate). The company has publicly touted milestones around dire-wolf linked research and “de-extinction” storytelling, claims that continue to draw scrutiny from scientists who warn about ecological tradeoffs, animal welfare, and the ethics of commercial cloning.

ViaGen (now part of Colossal) popularized pet cloning in the U.S. Offering DNA preservation and somatic cell nuclear transfer the same technique used for Dolly the sheep. The result is a genetically identical animal, though personalities and behavior can vary due to environment and development.

Brady’s reveal wasn’t just a personal story it was a well-timed proof point for Colossal’s expansion into consumer cloning. Whether you see it as heartwarming continuity or an ethical gray zone, pet cloning just went unmistakably mainstream.

This article first appeared on Dice City Sports and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: