The company received from several commercial sponsors the first tranche of $ 15 million for the development of its project.
Scientists initially thought about creating a hybrid of an elephant and a mammoth, creating embryos in the laboratory that carry mammoth DNA. The starting point of the project is to take skin cells from endangered Asian elephants and reprogram them into more versatile stem cells that carry mammoth DNA.
Specific genes for mammoth fur, layers of fat, and other adaptations to cold climates are identified by comparing the genomes of mammoths derived from animals recovered from permafrost with those of related Asian elephants.
These embryos will then be transferred to a surrogate mother or possibly an artificial uterus. If all goes to plan, the researchers hope to have the first batch of cubs within six years.
Colossal co-founder George Church, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, says their goal is to create a frost-resistant elephant that looks and behaves like a mammoth. He should be good at -40 ° C and do everything that elephants and mammoths do, in particular to demolish trees.
Thus, scientists are trying to save Asian elephants, providing them with features that allow them to live in the vast territories of the Arctic. Scientists also believe that populating the Arctic tundra with herds of hybrids of elephants and mammoths can help restore a degraded habitat and combat some of the consequences of the climate crisis. For example, animals will demolish trees and thereby help restore former arctic meadows.
– .
