Reprogrammed Elephant Cells: Towards Mammoth-Like Traits

Scientists at Colossal Biosciences have successfully reprogrammed elephant skin cells into an embryonic state, marking a crucial step towards engineering elephants with woolly mammoth traits.

Led by geneticist George Church, the team’s success in establishing induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell lines from Asian elephants opens new avenues for genetic editing to confer mammoth traits.

Though challenges remain in scaling up the process and transforming cells into viable embryos, this advancement represents a significant leap towards understanding genetic changes necessary for species conservation and could potentially reshape approaches to endangered animal preservation.