A colossal project or a colossal scam?
The American company Colossal raised $15 million for the revival of mammoths: is genetic engineering capable of this?
The American company Colossal has raised $ 15 million from investors to revive woolly mammoths. To do this, researchers want to use genetic engineering.
This is reported by The New York Times.
The woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) lived on the lands from Europe to Alaska during the Ice Age. A large number of mammoth bones were found at human sites of the early Stone Age, and scientists also came across drawings and figurines of mammoths made by prehistoric man. In Siberia and Alaska, the remains of mammoths were found, preserved due to their stay in permafrost.
Who came up with the idea to revive mammoths?
Harvard biologist George Church has been leading a small group of researchers working on the revival of mammoths for 8 years. In 2013, George Church (he is known for inventing ways to read and edit DNA) came up with the idea to revive an extinct species by rewriting the genes of a living relative.
Then the researchers tried to reconstruct the genome of extinct species based on DNA fragments taken from fossils. So scientists were able to pinpoint the genetic differences that distinguished ancient species from their modern relatives. Scientists began to figure out how these differences in DNA affected the differences in their bodies.
Ben Lamm (left) and George Church
Colossal was created by Ben Lamm, founder of the Texas-based artificial intelligence company Hypergiant, to support Dr. Church's experiments. Among the project's investors is Climate Capital, a private company that supports initiatives to reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere. One of the largest contributions was made by the American billionaire Thomas Tull, known for financial support of the films "Jurassic Park" (a science fiction thriller about the revival of dinosaurs), "The Dark Knight" (a superhero thriller about Batman) and "Dune" (a fantastic film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Frank Herbert).
Now Colossal will support research in Dr. Church's laboratory and conduct experiments in its own laboratories in Boston and Dallas. The possible withdrawal of new forms of genetic engineering and new reproductive technologies is called a benefit for investors.
How are they supposed to revive an extinct species?
Erion Gissoli, a former scientist at Church's laboratory, will work on changing the elephant's DNA. The team plans to create an elephant embryo whose genome will be modified for a mammoth.
Analyzing mammoth genomes collected from fossils, Gisolli and her colleagues compiled a list of the most important differences between mammoths and elephants. They took into account 60 genes, which, as their experiments show, are the most important distinguishing features of mammoths.
This is, in particular, a thick coat, a thick layer of fat to withstand the cold, as well as a high–domed skull. Researchers hope to create mammoth-like elephant embryos in a few years. And in the end, they strive to create entire populations of animals.
Initially, Dr. Church planned to implant embryos with modified genomes in surrogate elephants. But he abandoned this idea. Instead, he decided to make an artificial mammoth uterus. The scientist plans to grow the uterine tissue from stem cells. Previously, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has already created an airtight bag that can hold a lamb fetus for four weeks.
But Colossal will need to build a large enough artificial uterus, which will have to hold a fetus weighing about 100 kg for about 2 years.
Pros and Cons
George Church is convinced that revived woolly mammoths can help the environment. Now moss grows in the tundra of Siberia and North America, but in the time of the mammoths there were pastures. In addition, the tundra is rapidly heating up, releasing carbon dioxide. Some scientists suggest that mammoths were a kind of ecosystem engineers. They say they protected the meadows, breaking moss, breaking down trees and providing pastures with the necessary droppings.
"We can assume that mammoths will help solve this problem," says Church.
London School of Economics philosopher Heather Bushman says that it is worth weighing the benefits of the mammoth revival for the tundra with the possible suffering that these mammoths may receive due to the return to life by scientists.
"There are no mothers in nature for this species. If they are even a little bit like elephants, then they also have a strong mother-cub bond. And who can assure that as soon as the baby mammoth appears, there will be someone to look after him?", – she says.
Some other researchers believe that even if scientists manage to create elephants similar to a mammoth, the company will face serious ethical questions.
Is it humane to create an animal whose biology we know so little about? Who should decide whether it is possible to release them into the wild, because this can radically change the ecosystem of the tundra?
Paleogeneticist from the University of California Santa Cruz and author of the book "How to clone a mammoth" Beth Shapiro is skeptical about the success of the project to revive mammoths in the near future.
"There are a million problems waiting for us all along the way," she says.
But Shapiro supports the project and hopes that Colossal will achieve scientific discoveries that can help endangered species.
For example, scientists may be able to use Colossal's achievements to save species threatened by diseases by endowing them with pathogen resistance genes. The scientist also talks about the possibility in the future to enrich certain animals with genes that would help them better tolerate heat and drought caused by climate change.
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