Woolly mammoths: scientists seek to revive them in the laboratory and return them to the Arctic

An ambitious project for restoring extinct ecosystems would bring woolly mammoths back to life in a few years. The scientific project that guides the renowned geneticist George Church, Harvard University, yearns to see hybrids of this species walking in the Arctic which it disappeared from the face of the earth between 10,000 and 1,700 BC.

One of the project’s investors and co-founder of the company behind it, Ben Lamm, underlined the work accomplished since “Never before has humanity been able to harness the power of this technology to rebuild ecosystems, heal our Earth and preserve its future through the repopulation of extinct animals.”

The idea of Colossal, the new bioscience and genetics company led by Lamm and of which Church is co-founder is, “in addition to bringing back ancient extinct species like the woolly mammoth, harness our technologies to help preserve critically endangered species that are on the brink of extinction and restore animals where humanity has been involved in their extinction, ”he said.

The plan has an initial investment of $ 15 million from various investors, including tech entrepreneur Ben Lamm himself, the Times revealed.

The woolly mammoth is a prehistoric species well studied by scientists through the many remains that have been discovered. It belonged to family of elephants and intensive hunting by its contemporary, Homo sapiens, is believed to have led to its extinction. From what specialists were able to reconstruct, the mammoths were covered with long, matted hairs that allowed them to adapt to the climate of extreme cold of the Ice Age.

Mammuthus primigenius has reached a size similar to current elephants. The first complete specimen was found in Russia in 1806, near the mouth of the Lena river in Siberia. Before and after this scientific event, numerous bones and curved tusks were found both in this Russian region and in Arctic Islands and North America.

Scientists believe that the woolly mammoth has gradually disappeared. First from Europe, around 10,000 BC. AD, but continued to exist until about 8,000 BC. AD in Siberia. In Alaska, more precisely on Saint Paul Island, it was present until about 6000 BC.

The Colossal project will seek to revive a hybrid of the species and, in addition, use its scientific technology to restore other lost ecosystems and delay climate change.

Church, 67, is a professor of genetics Robert Winthrop at Harvard Medical School and is known as the father of synthetic biology. Their work, along with that of other scientists, has been instrumental in the development of Crispr gene-editing technology, with which scientists can alter DNA sequences and adjust gene function for such purposes. than correcting genetic defects or making crops more resistant. It is a technology that was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2012.

In 2015, Church and his team used Crispr to splice frozen woolly mammoth genes into DNA from skin cells of an Asian elephant. It was the first time that the genes of the woolly mammoth had been activated since its extinction.

But Colossal’s project to relaunch this species is even more complex and is based on concepts of genetic engineering already proven in pigs. The result would be a genetically modified elephant-mammoth hybrid, grown in an artificial uterus in the laboratory.

The DNA of Asian elephants and woolly mammoths is 99.6% similar, Colossal said on its website.

The ultimate goal of the initiative is to recreate lost habitats by bringing extinct species back to their places of origin. In the case of the woolly mammoth, this would revitalize the arctic grasslands and this in turn This would slow the melting of the permafrost and increase the uptake of carbon dioxide, a cause of climate change.

Colossal enjoys the financial backing of leading technology investment firms and figures such as Thomas Tull, a billionaire film producer and investor in artificial intelligence, The Times added.

“The technologies discovered in the pursuit of this great vision, a living and traveling substitute for a woolly mammoth, they could create very significant conservation opportunities, ”Lamm said.

For its part, the company issued a press release explaining its project: “Colossal will launch a practical model of de-extinction and be the first company to apply advanced genetic modification techniques to reintegrate the woolly mammoth into the arctic tundra.”

The concept of de-extinction is to create an animal similar to an extinct species from genetics, is not unanimous within the scientific community and some researchers doubt seriously about its viability or worrying about the risks of its application.

As Lamm noted, the company emphasized in its statement that the creation of these hybrid pachyderms and their subsequent reintroduction into the tundra should allow “Restore lost ecosystems that could help slow or even reverse the effects of climate change”, the company’s forecasts. Genetically engineered woolly mammoths could, in particular, “breathe new life into the arctic grasslands,” which Colossal says capture carbon dioxide and remove methane, two greenhouse gases.

“There are a lot of problems that will arise from this process”, anticipated the biologist. Beth saphiro a The New York Times. “It’s not a de-extinction. There will never be mammoths on earth again. If it works, it will be a chimeric elephant, a completely new organism, synthetic and genetically modified “notified on Twitter Tori Herridge, biologist and paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in London.

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