Taking place in Sakha (the northern part of Russia) a group of scientists have set up a laboratory which aims to realize the mammoths cloning. The laboratory was opened in March, and is a joint project between the Russian and Korean scientists will strive to realize the mammoth cloning, clearly Lena Grigoryeva, a senior researcher of the laboratory.
Its launch has been planned since three years ago, the agreement between the North Eastern Federal University in Russia and Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in South Korea. This laboratory has focused to study the tissue layers of ancient animals along with their genome. "We plan to learn not only the cells of ancient animals, but also their DNA," said Semyon Grigoryev, director of the Museum of mammoth in Russia.
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| Colombian mammoth fossil in the Page Museum, Los Angeles, California. (Picture from: http://bit.ly/1M7dVyv) |
All items required have been obtained prior to the economic crisis and scientists have united around the facility in 2012. The current economic difficult situation does not hamper them. "Of course we want to get more funding, but because we have just started to operate, we do not need so much now," said Grigoryeva.
Currently they have had 2,000 samples of ancient animals were frozen, making them have the largest collection in Russia. Some of them are older than 10,000 years, as Malolyakhovsky mammoth discovered in 2013, which was estimated to be more than 28,000 years. Most of the samples found in Sakha, in the permafrost regions that have a layer of frozen ground, which makes the relics of these animals preserved. One of the discoveries in the area are mammoth discovered in 2013 by the meat was still red.
Unfortunately, bureaucracy is often slow the process of scientific discovery. "Sometimes the possibility to process the samples in Russia almost nothing, so we have to send it to our colleagues abroad. To do that, we have to take care of a lot of files and dealing with many government institutions."
"We can only send the mammoth (to the Koreaan scientists) after half a year preparing for delivery. While waiting for the preparation, the sample was only lying and rot." said Grigoryeva further. Another difficulty facing by them is to find a whole string of DNA that are usually only found the pieces. They are trying to re-unite the pieces into an intact form.
Grigoryeva sure that the cloned mammoth will survive in northern Russia because the weather is quite cold in there. However, although science has made rapid development in this region and according to her, they will not be able to be cloned the mammoth in the near future. "I think this goal can not be achieved in my lifetime," she added.
Cloning a mammoth might just be a dream for the future because some extinct animals have been successfully cloned. In the 1990s, a cloned sheep named Dolly was born and became the first success in this field. Rats, goats, pigs, and cows have also been entered into is a list of successful cloning experiments. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | ]
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