Scientists have promised to resurrect extinct mammoths by 2028

It’s been more than 4,000 years since the woolly mammoth last walked the Earth, but these extinct giants may not be gone forever. According to the Daily Mail, researchers have made a major breakthrough that could lead to the return of woolly mammoths to life before 2028.

Scientists at Colossal Biosciences have successfully created “pluripotent” elephant stem cells that can grow into any cell in the body.

Dr George Church, Colossal’s co-founder and lead geneticist, told MailOnline that creating these cells “opens the door” to ending the extinction of the mammoth. “It’s not a big extrapolation to think that in the future we will be able to synthesize on a large scale,” he said.

Key to this development is the ability to induce elephant cells to become pluripotent stem cells.

According to the Daily Mail, in 2006, a scientist named Shinya Yamanaka discovered a way to use a chemical cocktail to turn adult animal cells into stem cells – those that have the unique ability to turn into any other type of cell.

While this has been done successfully with humans, rabbits, big cats and even the northern white rhinoceros, it has never been done before with an elephant.

To go from these cells to a living, breathing mammoth, scientists hope to edit them using genes taken from the frozen woolly mammoth carcass. The cells could then be forced to grow into an egg, which could be fertilized and grown in an artificial womb.

While the ultimate goal may be to stop the extinction of the woolly mammoth, Dr. Church says the first step is to create an elephant-mammoth hybrid.

Dr Church told MailOnline: “What we are doing is creating a special hybrid that will both enrich the Asian elephant and bring back diversity to the mammoth.”

Colossal hopes the resulting hybrid will help elephants thrive and restore damaged Arctic ecosystems.

Asian elephants are currently stranded in areas with high population densities, creating problems for both elephants and people. But if they could be bred to withstand more extreme conditions, they could potentially thrive away from humans in areas where the woolly mammoth once roamed.

“We hope to use the diversity that comes from their more recent ancient relatives to help them cope with new conditions that may be required for them to thrive,” Dr Church said.

However, without the development of induced pluripotent stem cells, none of this would be possible.

It wasn’t easy, according to Eriona Highsall, head of life sciences at Colossal Biosciences, who said it took years to develop methods to obtain these cells from elephants.

Most mammals have a set of genes called TP53 retrogenes that are involved in suppressing tumor growth. While humans have only two copies, elephants have almost 40. Using a set of processes that suppress the action of these genes, researchers have finally overcome this barrier and managed to create induced pluripotent stem cells.

Because different animals have this gene, but in different amounts, this may partly explain why some species are more susceptible to cancer.

Dr Church said: “This could help us understand why mice almost always die of cancer while elephants almost never do.”

Colossal Biosciences hopes these cells will boost their efforts to test cold resistance genes in elephants and conserve existing populations.

Scientists can edit the genes of living animals using a technique called CRISPR, but it is too slow to conduct large-scale trials.

Dr Church explains that by using stem cells, scientists can see whether their genetic changes have been successful within a couple of weeks, rather than waiting until the almost two-year gestation period in elephants.

Best of all, induced pluripotent stem cells are “immortal,” meaning scientists will be able to create thousands of tests at once in much less time.

The team now plans to continue testing cold-tolerance genes in elephants and work on growing eggs and sperm for use in conservation and research.

And Colossal Biosciences doesn’t stop there – it wants to revive the extinct woolly mammoth and dodo.