It’s been more than 4,000 years since the woolly mammoth last walked the Earth, but these extinct giants may not be gone forever.
Researchers have made a breakthrough that could allow woolly mammoths to return to life before 2050.
Scientists at Colossal Biosciences have successfully created “pluripotent” elephant stem cells that can grow into any cell in the body.
Dr George Church, co-founder and lead geneticist at Colossal, told MailOnline that the creation of these cells “opens the door” to the extinction of the mammoth.
“It’s not a huge extrapolation to think that we’ll be able to do large-scale synthesis in the future, so I don’t think it’s as far away as 2050,” he said.
Scientists have made a breakthrough that allows them to produce pluripotent stem cells from elephant cells. By combining them with genes taken from a frozen woolly mammoth, they hope to one day create hybrid eggs that can develop into embryos in an artificial womb.
Colossal Biosciences has made a breakthrough that could lead the woolly mammoth to return to Earth before 2050
The key to this development is the ability to induce elephant cells to become pluripotent stem cells.
In 2006, a scientist named Shinya Yamanaka discovered a way to use a chemical cocktail to cause cells from adult animals to become stem cells, those with the unique ability to become any other type of cell.
While this has already been done successfully on humans, rabbits, big cats and even the northern white rhino, it has never been done on an elephant until now.
To go from these cells to a living, breathing mammoth, scientists hope to edit them with genes taken from a frozen woolly mammoth carcass.
The cells could then be induced to develop into an egg that could be fertilized and grown in an artificial womb.
While the extinction of the woolly mammoth could be the ultimate goal, Dr. Church says the first step is to create an elephant-mammoth hybrid.
This image shows colonies of induced pluripotent stem cells derived from elephants. These cells have the unique ability to become any other cell in the body, making them a perfect base for testing and growing mammoth-elephant hybrids from
Using pluripotent stem cells, scientists hope to create gametes (eggs and sperm) and tissue-like structures called organoids that they can use for testing.
Dr Church told MailOnline: “What we are doing is creating a particular hybrid that will enrich the Asian elephant and restore the diversity of the mammoth.”
Colossal hopes the resulting hybrid will help elephants thrive and repair damaged Arctic ecosystems.
Currently, Asian elephants are “trapped” in areas with high human population density, causing problems for both elephants and humans.
But if they could be bred to withstand more extreme conditions, they could thrive in areas far from humans where the woolly mammoth once roamed.
“We hope to use the diversity that comes from their not-so-ancient relatives to help them cope with the new environments that may be necessary for them to thrive,” Dr. Church said.
However, without the development of induced pluripotent stem cells, none of this would be possible.
This has not been easy, according to Eriona Hysoll, head of biological sciences at Colossal Biosciences, who revealed that it has taken years to develop the techniques to produce these cells from elephants.
Most mammals have a set of genes called TP53 retrogenes that are involved in suppressing tumor growth.
While a human only has two copies, an elephant has almost 40.
Using a set of processes that repress the action of these genes, the researchers finally overcame this barrier and managed to create induced pluripotent stem cells.
Dr George Church says creating elephant-mammoth hybrids will help conserve the elephant by allowing it to expand its range and help repair damaged Arctic ecosystems.
Since different animals have this gene but in varying amounts, this could partly explain why some species are more prone to cancer.
Dr Church said: “This could help us understand why mice almost always die of cancer, while elephants almost never die.”
Colossal Biosciences hopes these cells will boost its efforts to test cold-resistant genes in elephants and conserve existing populations.
Scientists can edit genes in living animals using a technique called CRISPR, but it is too slow to test at scale.
Dr. Church explains that by using stem cells, scientists can see if their genetic changes have been successful in a couple of weeks rather than waiting for the elephants to have a gestation period of almost two years.
Best of all, induced pluripotent stem cells are “immortal,” meaning scientists will be able to create thousands of tests at once in a much shorter period of time.
The team now plans to continue testing cold-resistant genes in elephants and work to grow eggs and sperm for use in conservation and study.
And Colossal Biosciences doesn’t stop there: it also wants to recover the extinct woolly mammoth and the dodo.