Scientists close to resurrecting certain extinct species?

Lhe resurrection of extinct species will perhaps no longer be a science fiction dream. Thanks to spectacular advances in genetic engineering and synthetic biology, scientists are committed to bringing extinct animals back to life in an incredibly short time frame. Among them, Colossal Biosciences, an American start-up, is leading efforts to bring iconic species like the woolly mammoth, the dodo and the Tasmanian tiger back to life, reports CNN.

Founded in 2021 by entrepreneur Ben Lamm and Harvard geneticist George Church, Colossal recently raised $200 million, bringing its total funding to $435 million. This massive financial support fuels projects that aim to recreate viable approximations of extinct species to reintroduce them into their natural habitat, with goals ranging from restoring ecosystems to combating climate change.

Cloning, genetics and backward selection

Scientists are exploring three main techniques for reviving extinct species: cloning, genetic engineering and backward breeding. While cloning can produce almost identical copies of animals, it remains limited to recently extinct species, as demonstrated by the recent success in cloning a critically endangered black-footed ferret. On the other hand, the most ambitious projects, such as those of Colossal Biosciences, rely on the modification of the genome of par […] Read more