Scientists Try to Bring Australian ‘Tiger’ Back From Extinction

upstart writes:

Scientists try to bring Australian 'tiger' back from extinction:

The scientist reached into an enclosure in the biosciences building at the University of Melbourne and pulled out a dunnart - a mouse-sized marsupial with huge, inky black eyes. [...]

The enclosure is part of the university's newly established Thylacine Integrated Genetic Restoration Research (TIGRR) Lab. A team of genetic scientists led by biosciences professor Andrew Pask is attempting to make the concept of "de-extinction" a reality. [...]

Here's the plan to bring it [thylacine, aka Tasmanian tiger] back: First, turn dunnart cells into thylacine cells using gene-editing technology. Then use the thylacine cells to create an embryo, either in a petri dish or the womb of a living animal. Implant the embryo into a female marsupial such as a quoll, and watch the quoll give birth to a thylacine baby. When the baby is old enough to leave the quoll pouch, raise it into adulthood. Repeat and establish a healthy population, with the goal of releasing thylacines into the wild.

"It is certainly feasible," said Owain Edwards, Environmental Synthetic Genomics group leader at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, who is not involved in the project. "Absolutely. What they're proposing to do, can be done. What isn't clear to anybody yet is: What exactly will result from it? Because it will never be a pure thylacine."

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