Scientists have made a stem cell breakthrough in elephants, which could mean researchers are one step closer to bringing back long-extinct woolly mammoths, the de-extinction company Colossal Biosciences has announced.
In a statement shared with Live Science, Colossal's Woolly Mammoth team says it has successfully derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from Asian elephants (Elephas maximus). iPSCs are cells that have been reprogrammed so they can give rise to any cell type in the body, meaning researchers will now be able to investigate the adaptations that differentiate woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) from their closest living relatives and test gene edits without having to take tissue from living animals.
