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Reviving extinct mammoth ‘still possible in the near future’

SINGAPORE — Despite the lack of strong indication of the success of the venture, South Korean scientist Mr Hwang In Sung remains hopeful of the possibility of cloning the extinct woolly mammoth. “I think there’s not a good judgement on how soon the technology (to recreate a mammoth) will develop, but I hope one day in future mankind will be able to see a live mammoth,” he said.

SINGAPORE — Despite the lack of strong indication of the success of the venture, South Korean scientist Mr Hwang In Sung remains hopeful of the possibility of cloning the extinct woolly mammoth. “I think there’s not a good judgement on how soon the technology (to recreate a mammoth) will develop, but I hope one day in future mankind will be able to see a live mammoth,” he said.

Mr Hwang In Sung, a researcher at South Korea’s Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, was part of the team of scientists that trekked through northern Siberia on an expedition to search for viable mammoth samples, as part of the National Geographic Channel’s documentary, Mammoth: Back From The Dead. The team also comprised Dr Love Dalen, a researcher from the Department of Zoology at Stockholm University, and Mr Jim Coates, President of Kryotek Arctic Innovation.

“We initiated this project because with global warming accelerating the melting of the Siberian permafrost, more mammoth samples are getting exposed (to the atmosphere) but they are not (being handled or processed properly),” said Mr Hwang.

Together with Russian colleagues at the North-Eastern Federal University, the team is working on a joint project to restore the mammoth, so they were after fresh mammoth samples for scientific analysis. Said Mr Hwang: “We were looking for samples that had been preserved in permafrost and had not been defrosted since the time mammoths went extinct.”

The expedition took place at two sites, Batagaika and Muus-khaya, in the northern part of Siberia, from early August to early September last year. The team succeeded in finding cell nuclei that were still there after 30,000 years, and their next step is to attempt to inject those nuclei into egg cells to revive them.

“The purpose was to find a nucleus that has been well preserved, and then we can inject it into an egg from an elephant to see whether it can survive. The nuclear DNA may have been a bit damaged over time, but implanting the nucleus into the egg may revive the nucleus if the damage is not serious,” explained Mr Hwang. The nuclei were extracted from mammoth skin samples, which are easier to isolate than, for example, those in bone marrow.

Extracting nuclei from the mammoth samples was difficult. “We find a lot of good nuclei samples, but we lose a lot of them when we’re isolating them, because the isolation process is optimised for working on fresh tissue, and not 30,000-year-old tissue,” said Mr Hwang.

On the recent discovery by Russian researchers of mammoth samples containing liquid blood, Mr Hwang said: “We can’t be too quick to judge that it’s actually blood; we have to go there and analyse the sample to make sure it is.”

“However, if it is blood, this finding it is incredible. There have been discoveries of dried blood samples, but it’s never a case that liquid blood has been found. Cloning can’t be done with blood, but I’m looking forward to analysing the samples from there.”

Mr Hwang is cautious about the outcome of this joint project. “The possibility of us cloning a mammoth is very low, as is the possibility of succeeding in this project, but the reason for starting this project is that mammoth samples are being lost,” he said.

Instead of cloning, other methods could be used to revive mammoths, such as gene synthesis to construct the genome of mammoths from scratch in order to create the animal. Said Mr Hwang: “If the technology develops, the chances (of having a live mammoth) will get better. Science and cloning technology progress very quickly, so it’s still possible in the near future.”

However, the purpose of working on cloning mammoths is not to reconstruct prehistoric environments. Said Mr Hwang: “Cloning a mammoth is more about the process of developing the technology, which will be crucial in helping humans cope with diseases. The focus is not so much on having a live mammoth in our midst.”

Mammoth: Back From The DeadPremiering as part of NGC Explorer 125 SpecialJune 8, 2013, 10pmNational Geographic ChannelStarhub TV Ch. 411 and SingTel mio TV Ch. 201

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