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The release this week of some interesting news regarding some furry rodents, so-called “woolly mouse” created as part of an experimental study to see if we could one day revive the woolly mammoth.
Thanks to the advances made in ancient DNA sequencing, there is a growing interest in bringing extinct species back. Scientists have recently recovered the genetic blueprints of frozen mammoths and dodo bird remains, as well as more than 10,000 ancient humans.
These ancient genetic data are helping us to better understand the past, for example by providing information on prehistoric human interactions. Researchers are getting more ambitious. They want to do more than simply read ancient DNA. Use By inserting them into living organisms.
Colossal Biosciences says this is its goal. It is the ultimate goal to genetically modify elephants to resemble extinct pachyderms.
There is still a lot of work to be done. Colossal’s mice include genetic modifications that previously were known to cause mice to be furry and long-haired. The changes made were not mammoth like, but rather similar. The following is a list of the most recent and relevant articles. A mammoth. The mice were only given a letter from the mammoth’s DNA.
This idea was so novel and so popular that I thought it might be helpful to keep a track of the previous attempts at adding extinct DNA into living organisms. Since the technology has no name yet, we’ll call it “chronogenics.”
Ben Novak is the lead scientist of Revive & Restore. This organization uses genetic technologies to aid conservation. Novak assisted me in finding examples. I also received ideas from Harvard Geneticist George Church, who originally imagined the mammoth Project, as well Beth Shapiro at Colossal.
Chronogenics seems to have started in 2004. In 2004, US scientists announced that they had partially re-created 1918’s deadly influenza virus, and infected mice with it. They had to search for a very long time before they found the virus in a frozen corpse from Alaska. The germ had been preserved like a capsule. They were eventually able to recreate the virus, including all eight genes. It was found that it killed rodents.
The idea of gene deextinction was alarming. We know this from films like It’s a Thing It is not a good idea to dig up frozen animals from ice. Scientists felt it was unnecessary to risk the spread of the 1918 influenza virus, which had caused the deaths of 30 million people.
Viruses do not count as living organisms. The first time chronogenics was used to study animals is only in 2008 when Australian scientists Andrew Pask, Marilyn Renfree, and their team collected the genetic information from a Tasmanian Tiger, also known as a Thylacine. This carnivorous marsupial had been in an ethanol jar since 1936, which means that it has not yet died.
They then showed that a small fragment of DNA from the now extinct species could be added to mice, and it was able to regulate another gene. At one level, this was a routine gene-function study. Scientists frequently make DNA modifications to mice in order to observe the results.
They were studying genes that are extinct, and they estimate that this accounts for about 99% of all genetic diversity ever recorded. Researchers used religious terminology to explain where DNA came from.
They wrote that “Genetic data from an extinct specie can be revived.” We have brought back to life a genetic fragment from an extinct mammalian species.
This brings me to the point where I believe that this is the very first commercial attempt to use extinct genes. It was brought to our attention by 2016. Gingko Bioworks is a company that produces synthetic biology. They began searching in herbariums to find specimens of extinct plants, such as one which grew on Maui’s lava field until early 20th-century. Afterwards, the company was able to isolate some of the genes that were responsible for the scent molecules.
Christina Agapakis was the former Gingko senior vice-president for marketing and creative, and she led the project. “We actually inserted the genes into the yeast strains, and measured the molecules,” Agapakis says. Ginkgo eventually worked with an “smell-artist” to mimic these odors by using aroma chemicals that are commercially available. The resulting fragrances, which are available for purchase, use the extinct genes only as inspiration and not actual ingredients.
This is a bit like the project on woolly mice. Scientists complained that Colossal, if it were to start chrono-engineering elephants (which is unlikely), would not be able make the thousands of changes in DNA needed to recreate the mammoth’s appearance and behaviour. One scientist claimed that the end result would be “a crude replica of a long-extinct animal.”
Agapakis advises against being overly literal when it comes to gene retrieval. She says that as an artist, she saw the way the extinct flowers made people connect with nature. They felt a sense of sadness, loss, and hope. So I think that there’s a powerful, poetic and ethical component to this work. It demands we take care of these creatures as well as our relationship with nature in general.
We found only a handful of examples to conclude our list. A Japanese team in 2023 added one mutation from Neanderthals into mice to see how the change affected their anatomy. In an unpublished study, researchers at Carlsberg Laboratory in Copenhagen say they added a mutation to barley after looking through DNA from Greenland mounds dating back 2 million years.
This change to a gene that responds to light could allow the crop to be tolerant of the Arctic’s long winter and summer nights.
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You can read more in the archive of MIT Technology Review
Can a cell be edited genetically multiple times before its life span is over? If you’re trying to transform an elephant into mammoth, the answer will be crucial. Scientists set the record in 2019 with over 13,000 edits on a single cell.
In Denmark, ancient DNA was reproduced on a barley seed. This is part of an effort to make crops grow at higher latitudes. It will be useful as temperatures rise.
Paleontologists build robotic models of prehistoric creatures that can fly, swim and slither. Check out this page for more information MIT Technology Review The story behind the word Shi En Kim.
Jean Hebert is the researcher that discovered in 1994 how to create a mouse that has extra long hair. Hebert, a Canadian scientist and author of the book “How to Stay Young” explains how he replaces your brain tissue with substitute tissues.
Are you looking for unintended consequences of genetic engineering? Journalist Douglas Main revealed last year that the GMO crop use has led to the development of herbicide-resistant weeds.
Around the Web
Now, the United Kingdom imports about half of all donor sperm that is used for IVF. A “shortage of donors” has caused sperm per gram to be more expensive than caviar from the beluga. (Financial Times)
Jason Bannan is the FBI agent in charge of the scientific investigation that led to the discovery of the covid-19 pandemic. He explains why, according to him, a laboratory accident occurred in China. (Vanity Fair)
Cortical Labs in Australia has released “the world’s first commercial biological computer” (according to the company). This device is a combination of silicon chips and thousands of neurons. (Boing Boing)
Trump’s administration has terminated medical research grants that are focused on gender identity. They argue that these studies “often lack scientific rigor” and do not take into account “biological reality.” Researchers have vowed that they will continue to push on. (Inside Medicine).
Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University physician and director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which finances nearly $48 billion of research annually, was confirmed by the US Senate. Bhattacharya rose to prominence for his opposition to lockdowns during the pandemic of covid-19. (NPR)
Francis Collins, former Director of the National Institutes of Health has retired. He was a highly regarded geneticist who served as the director of the Human Genome Project for 12 years, from 2010 to 2021. He identified early in his career the gene responsible for cystic fibrosis. (New York Times).
