Company attempts to resurrect mammoths using stem cells
Mammoths returning to earth?
In any case, this is what the American biotechnology company Colossal is trying to do.
The scientific journal
Nature
presents the impressive advances of researchers, although they have not yet been validated by the scientific community.
American researchers, who have managed to create elephant stem cells in the laboratory, are trying to bring woolly mammoths back to life.
AP - Domenico Stinellis
By: RFI Follow
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This is a considerable step forward for researchers.
They would have succeeded in reprogramming the cells of an Asian elephant
by
modifying the sequences of its DNA to reveal the genes of a woolly mammoth.
To do this, the American company Colossal, which aims to resurrect extinct species, had to somehow “
boost
” the cells of the Asian elephant, which is its closest cousin.
The objective: to create the future embryo of the prehistoric animal.
Also readResurrect the mammoth to fight climate change
A complicated task
If this advance has not yet been validated by the scientific community in the absence of a publication in a peer-reviewed journal, it is an achievement as the
researchers
encountered several difficulties.
First, the Asian elephant is classified as endangered.
Then, this pachyderm has a gene that protects it from mutations.
It would seem that they still succeeded in the first stage of their research, in other words that of reprogramming these cells.
From there to seeing baby mammoths born, the road is very long.
The future embryo must still survive implantation in the elephant, then gestation.
Another major challenge: the little mammoth will have to be able to survive in an environment radically different from its own.
Our Woolly Mammoth team has achieved a global-first iPSC breakthrough!
🏆
iPSC cells represent a single cell source that can propagate indefinitely and elephant iPSCs (the most elusive iPSCs to date) are now obtainable!
#bioscience #deextinction #technology pic.twitter.com/gLAjC15TVY
— Colossal Biosciences® (@itiscolossal) March 6, 2024
Also read: Do we really need to resurrect extinct species?
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