Could CRISPR Gene Editing Bring Back the Wooly Mammoth?
Can genetic engineering and reproductive technology de-extinct the Wooly Mammoth?
In the movie Jurassic Park, a team of geneticists brings extinct dinosaurs back to life to create a biological preserve and theme park on an island off the coast of Costa Rica. Tourists can safely roam the park and see how the dinosaurs lived hundreds of millions of years ago. However, when a power outage causes the dinosaurs to escape, the tourists struggle to survive on an island whose attractions are trying to kill them. The scientists in the movie used genetic engineering to “de-extinct” the dinosaurs, but how realistic is that?
As you’ve probably guessed, a possibility of achieving this in the real world is to use CRISPR. CRISPR is a gene-editing tool often touted as “word processing for DNA.” In a nutshell, CRISPR allows scientists to manipulate genomes easily and inexpensively by making cuts and edits at precise locations. CRISPR is so revolutionary that the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, two pioneering scientists in the field. If you want to lear more about the tool, this article explains the history and science behind CRISPR.
