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Mammoth cloning: NEFU and Korean scientists will continue to find new samples

  • 26 March 2015
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Mammoth cloning: NEFU and Korean scientists will continue to find new samples

On March 17, the members of the research group for study of Malolyakhovsky mammoth told about the results of scientific seminar and what difficulties modern science should overcome to clone mammoth.

"We will continue to search for new materials and samples. We need a cell that could share information. If we can find the sample, which is not only well-preserved, but has biochemical processes, we will be able to fertilize the Asian elephant using selected materials", Hwang Woo Suk, the head of the South Korean SOOAM Biotech Research Foundation, said.

"There are two ways of cloning a mammoth. The first is finding living cells. The second is the synthesis of DNA artificial molecules", the head of the Laboratory of NEFU Mammoth Museum Semyon Grigoriev said.

Deputy Director for Research of Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences Aleksey Tikhonov added that science needs followers - those who in the future will be engaged in the development and study of mammoths.

"Now our Yakutian colleagues have their own center, modern laboratories, where NEFU students will study. This is what we all achieved during scientific work. This, perhaps, may be the main result of cloning a mammoth - Yakutian molecular biologists. If they will be viable and in turn will bring young molecular biologists, which will become the Yakut Scientific School of Molecular Genetics, then the experiment on cloning a mammoth will be successful", he added.

Scientists are optimistic in their predictions. "A few years ago, I would definitely say that it is impossible to clone a mammoth. However, science does not stand still. The first and confident steps we have already done", the scientist summed up.

Author: Uliana EVSEEVA, NEFU Newsroom

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