The San Diego zoo and The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California have joined together to conduct research on reproducing rare animals. The frozen stems cells, in theory, will allow a basis to create sperm and eggs in order to create a reproduction. Paul Aldhous of New Science magazine goes into detail:
… Read the rest
“At the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research in San Francisco last week, Inbar Friedrich Ben-Nun and Jeanne Loring of Scripps described how they have created induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from the frozen skin cells of a deceased male drill (Madrillus Ieucophaeus) an endangered monkey found in Nigeria, Cameroon, and Equatorial Guinea.
The team’s long-term goal is to coax iPS cells into becoming sperm and eggs. They will be making iPS cells from tissue held by San Diego zoo’s Frozen Zoo project – which has samples from some 8400 individuals representing more than 800 species.