Scientists edging closer to recreating the DNA of woolly mammoths

MOVE over Clive Palmer. A group of scientists are edging closer to creating a real life Jurassic Park starting with the woolly mammoth.

THE world may soon be able to visit a real life Jurassic Park and we’re not talking about a Clive Palmer resort.

Scientists at Harvard University are edging closer to recreating the DNA of woolly mammoths, so they can roam the earth again.

After studying the preserved DNA from mammoths, the scientists were able to separate the genes that made them unique from elephants.

The scientists were then able to reproduce an exact copy of 14 of the mammoth’s genes and splice them into the genetic code of an elephant with no fault.

Professor of genetics at Harvard University George Church said the ground breaking technique, known as ‘Crispr’, allows scientists to make precision edits to DNA.

“We prioritised genes associated with cold resistance including hairiness, ear size, subcutaneous fat and, especially, haemoglobin,” Church told The Sunday Times.

“We now have functioning elephant cells with mammoth DNA in them. We have not published it in a scientific journal because there is more work to do, but we plan to do so.”

Ancient DNA expert Beth Shapiro said scientists are in good position to achieve this feat.

“If we really want to bring mammoths back to life, then we’re in luck, as far as DNA preservation goes,” she wrote in her book How to Clone a Mammoth.

“Some mammoths lived in places where their bones and carcasses were buried in permafrost, like being stuck in a freezer for 30,000-plus years.

“It’s in pretty shoddy condition, so hard to piece together, but if we sort through these tiny pieces, finding where they fit along the elephant genome, then we can slowly build a lot of the mammoth genome.”

This has been the first time mammoth genes have been alive for more than 3,300 years.