If you were old enough to watch the news or read the paper back in the late 1990s, you very likely remember Dolly, the cloned sheep. Born in 1996, the researchers responsible for cloning her kept it quiet for months until their research paper was published.

LONDON, UK — Ian Wilmut, the cloning pioneer whose work was critical to the creation of Dolly the Sheep in 1996, has died at age 79. The University of Edinburgh in Scotland said Wilmut died Sunday after a long illness with Parkinson’s disease.

Colossal’s purchase of ViaGen, known for cloning pets of celebrities, bolsters the biotech firm’s tools for de-extinction and conservation.