Friday, December 09, 2011
Mice from Stem Cell Sperm (photo: Mitinori Saitou)
Scientists for decades have been freezing thousands of endangered species samples in the hopes of preventing extinction for many plants and animals.
The San Diego Zoo has used cryogenics since 1972 to preserve skin cells from rare and endangered species, hoping advanced technologies will be able to use the material to repopulate species. The zoo’s frozen repository includes 8,600 animals of 800 different species.
Similarly, the Smithsonian’s Genome Resource Bank, the United Kingdom’s Frozen Ark and the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway have banked sperm, eggs and seeds for the purpose of restoring species someday.
That opportunity may be now, following the successful use at Kyodo University in Japan of embryonic stem cells from mice to produce sperm that helped breed a healthy litter of animals.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Freezing Life: Cryogenics Is the Last Hope for Many Endangered Species (by Peter Murray, Singularity Hub)
Sperm Made (Mostly) in a Dish Produce Normal Mice (by Dennis Normile, Science Now)
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