Hybrid woolly mammoths could exist in two years

BOSTON — Woolly mammoths — or, at least, animals with very similar DNA — could be brought back from extinction within two years, say scientists behind a groundbreaking resurrection project.

George Church, a world-renowned geneticist, has been working with his team at Harvard University to recreate a DNA blueprint of the mammoth for the past two years using material from carcasses preserved in the Arctic permafrost.

They hope to isolate the genes that differentiate Ice Age mammoths from modern elephants — such as those responsible for its shaggy coat — then splice mammoth genes with the genome of an elephant embryo to create a hybrid with the recognizable features of a mammoth.

Laboratory tests show that cells function normally with mammoth and elephant DNA and the Harvard team plans to grow a mammoth embryo in an artificial womb, rather than use a female elephant as a surrogate mother.

Since starting the project in 2015, the researchers have increased the number of “edits” where mammoth DNA has been spliced into the elephant genome from 15 to 45. Church, who heads the Harvard Woolly Mammoth Revival team, said: “We’re working on ways to evaluate the impact of all these edits and trying to establish embryogenesis.

He added: “Our aim is to produce a hybrid elephant-mammoth embryo. Actually it would be more like an elephant with a number of mammoth traits. We’re not there yet, but it could happen in a couple of years.”

The woolly mammoth, which is most closely related to the Asian, rather than African elephant, roamed Europe, Asia, Africa and North America during the last Ice Age and vanished some 4,500 years ago, probably due to a climate change and hunting by humans.

Some experts argue that the technology should be used to save animals that are still alive but in decline, rather than trying to bring back extinct creatures.

Beth Shapiro, author of How to Clone a Mammoth, said scientists would never achieve a creature that was “100 per cent mammoth.” She added: “Elephants are an endangered species, and what if you could swap out a few genes for mammoth genes, not to bring the mammoth back but to allow them to live in colder climates.”