Genetic Tools to bring back Extinct Species
The idea of de-extinction, deliberately resurrecting species killed off by human activity, is challenging one of the fundamental concepts of biology: what determines a distinct species.
Recently there have been an increasing number of attepts at de-extinction. The Pyrenean Ibex, which lived for 10 minutes, the Gastric Brooding Frog in Australia and now this ambitious new project in the USA aims to use the latest techniques of genetic manipulation to bring the passenger pigeon back. Ben Novak, a de-extinction scientist working on the Revive & Restore project at the Long Now Foundation explained the project at the TEDxDeExtinction event last month.
This whole area of de-extinction would be a great starting point for discussion or student research projects in the SL Genetics topic.
- Is de-extinction one of the unexpected spin-offs from the Human genome project?
- How can we resolve the ethical and moral questions about changing the genetic integrity of a species by using donar egg cells from related species?
- What are the potential benefits and possible harmful effects of de-extinction?