Russians and Koreans clone mammoth

If scientists succeed in the enterprise, the elephant in a few years could bring the baby into the world long since extinct.

This week in Seoul signed an agreement on scientific enterprise that looks more like a science fiction movie script, but if successfully executed will again walk the earth species extinct thousands of years ago.
Northeastern University Russian Federation and South Korean Foundation for Bioengineering "Suam" hoping that in six years to make the world a living mammoth.
This type of giant elephant lived on earth millions of years. Before the eight millennium have disappeared from most of all, they survived the longest in northern Siberia, where they became extinct about 2000 years ago. Due to the cold climate there are also the best preserved specimens, so the task of Russian scientists to provide quality material from which will be preserved DNA sample extracted. They would be the end of the year should be sent to Seoul remains found in Siberian permafrost melting, the ground under the perpetual snow and ice. South Koreans believe they have the knowledge and expertise to perform the cloning procedure and will help Russian counterparts, who are reviving the mammoth number of years worked with Japanese scientists. The venture will also participate in the Beijing Institute of Genetics, told the AFP.
Seoul is the team leader of the controversial scientist Hwang Woo Suk who was ten years ago, celebrated as a national hero as the world's first cloned dog, but then embarrassed because it turned out that most research on cloning human cells falsified. Then it lost its license, but continued to conduct experiments. Last year in October announced that it had successfully cloned a coyote and announced that his next venture will be a mammoth.
The plan is to be the core of the Indian elephant cell nucleus replacement cells wollen mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius). Then the embryo is inserted into an elephant, in this case the "surrogate mother". The Korean Institute says that 22 months later, the world should have the reputation of wollen baby mammoth.
Director of the Institute Snag Hwan Hyun explains the "Wall Street Journal" that this idea popular among geneticists since the late nineties, but now have the knowledge in the field of cloning, which gives them an advantage over other international scientific centers. The biggest question is whether it can provide high-quality genetic material, because the issue remains that are thousands of years under the ice.
If the project is successful, it will be the second time that an extinct animal "resurrected". Iberian ibeks, type of wild goat, which disappeared 2000th years, was cloned three years ago from the frozen skin cells. The surrogate mother was a domestic goat, but the baby died at birth due to problems with the lungs, which had other cloned animals.

Antifreeze in the mammoth blood

Two years ago, Australian, Canadian and Danish researchers "produce" the blood of a Siberian mammoth wollen and found that it acted as a kind of antifreeze.

They used DNA from the bones of a mammoth 43 ​​000 years old and is copied to cell bacteria E. coli, which produced the authentic mammoth protein.

Research has shown that the evolution has been a mammoth-specific changes in the blood so that it can carry oxygen to all cells at very low temperatures, which is the type that comes from Africa and enable it to survive in the Arctic.