Good news for anyone who wishes we could revert to prehistoric times, or really, anyone who thinks woolly mammoths are awesome. Scientists in Asia have announced plans to recreate the giant creature that stomped around the Earth some 4,500 years ago.
It turns out that cloning scientist Hwang Woo-suk really meant it when he said last October that his next project would be to bring a mammoth back to life. On Tuesday, scientist Hwang Woo-suk of South Korea’s Sooam Biotech Research Foundation signed an agreement with Vasily Vasiliev of Russia’s North-Eastern Federal University to clone a mammoth.
On Monday, nine Korean and Russian scientists got together in Seoul to discuss their joint research in details including how to retrieve DNA samples from a mammoth. According to the Sooam Institute, bioengineering scientists since 2002 have discovered what they believe to be the remains of a mammoth in the permafrost of Russia. Last August, it was reported that a thigh bone of a mammoth was discovered in Siberia.
Their plan is to replace the nuclei of an elephant cell with one from a mammoth to produce an embryo with mammoth DNA. Then they are going to plant the embryo into the womb of a surrogate elephant. The institute said it would take 22 months before delivery. Though the project sounds possible only in a “Jurassic Park”-like story, bioscientists around the world, Japanese and Russian in particular, have been working hard since early 2000 to make this dream into reality.
Hwang, once lauded as a pioneer in the field of cloning, lost a bit of credibility in 2006 when some of his breakthrough human stem cell research turned out to be fabricated. However, experts have verified his work in creating the world’s first cloned dog, Snuppy, in 2005. Hwang’s next goal could also come to fruition now that portions of Siberia’s permafrost have thawed and left behind mammoth remains. Sooam officials said the foundation will launch research this year.
So how exactly does one go about cloning a woolly mammoth? The scientists plan to replace the nuclei of elephant egg cells with those of a mammoth, producing embryos with mammoth DNA. Then, those embryos will be planted into the wombs of elephants for delivery. The mammoth cells would come from internal organs, skin, bones and blood. Finding well-preserved tissue with an undamaged gene will be the most difficult task, the researchers told.
Though the initiative is quite ambitious, the researchers said they’re confident, given their previous success in cloning animals — and the success of their colleagues. South Korean scientists have already cloned animals including a cat, dogs, a pig, a cow and a wolf.
Sooam’s Director Hyun Sang-hwan told the Journal that Dr. Hwang’s team has toyed with the idea since late 1990s and that their know-how and expertise in the cloning field would, hopefully, put the Korean team at an advantage.
http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/03/14/the-woolly-mammoths-return-scientists-plan-to-clone-extinct-creature/?iid=nf-article-mostpop1
http://blogs.wsj.com/korearealtime/2012/03/13/will-be-resurrecting-a-mammoth-possible/
http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16188009
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