Woolly Mammoth returns in 2028 as Jurassic Park-style project reaches milestone

THE Woolly Mammoth is on course to roam the Earth again in 2028, some 4,000 years after its extinction.

It’s all thanks to a Jurassic Park-esque project led by Colossal Biosciences, believed to be the world’s first de-extinction company.

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Colossal has announced that it has reached a major milestone in the journey to bring the Woolly Mammoth back to life.

Scientists have made a breakthrough in elephant ‘pluripotent’ stem cells, also known as iPSCs, which can grow into any cell in the body.

They are essentially the building blocks needed to eradicate the great woolly mammoth.

Colossal is also working to bring back the Tasmanian tiger and the dodo.

According to Eriona Hysolli, Head of Biological Sciences at Colossal Biosciences, it is a long road to success.

“In the past, numerous attempts to generate elephant iPSCs have been unsuccessful,” Hysolli said in the announcement.

“Elephants are a very special species, and we have only just begun to explore their fundamental biology.

“The Colossal Mammoth team continued to be quite successful, as these advances are invaluable for the future of elephant-assisted reproductive technologies, as well as for advanced cellular modeling of mammoth phenotypes.”

Scientists hope to edit these cells with genes from a frozen, preserved Woolly Mammoth.

But these new cells also have great potential for studying cell development, cell therapy, drug screening and synthetic embryos.

Scientist Shinya Yamanaka paved the way for this project in 2006 when he discovered how to convert animal cells into stem cells, first in mice and then in big cats and rhinos.

But until now, elephant-based stem cells had not been successfully engineered.

‘The most difficult to reprogram’

Harvard’s hulking co-founder and geneticist, Dr. George Church, noted that while elephants might win the “hardest prize to reprogram,” the discovery will help other endangered species.

The milestone could provide insight into the developmental biology of other animals, and even how cancer develops in different species, says Dr. Church.

He added: “It opens the door to obtaining gametes and other cell types without surgery in precious animals.

‘It opens the door to making connections between genes and traits for both modern and extinct relatives – including resistance to extreme environmental factors and pathogens.

“This collaboration was a real pleasure and a huge accelerator for our challenging project.”

If successful, the company plans to reintroduce the Woolly Mammoth’s habitat to the Arctic tundra.

It will also provide a much-needed boost to the dwindling Asian elephant populations, which are located near areas with dense human populations.

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