The tasmanian tiger or thylacine became extinct in 1936.
Scientists in several countries are engaged in dedicated projects to bring extinct animals back from the dead — from the thylacine to the woolly mammoth, the passenger pigeon to the gastric-brooding frog.
Research groups like California-based biotech and conservation company Revive and Restore have been working for years to de-extinct the mammoth and passenger pigeon.
In Australia, thylacine de-extinction research has started and stopped, and recently started again with a $5 million philanthropic investment for the University of Melbourne.
The numbat is a close genetic relative to the thylacine with about 95% of its DNA the same as the thylacine.
The idea is to first line up the matching 95 per cent of the two species' DNA, and then try to work out where the remaining 5 per cent of the thylacine DNA fits into the puzzle.
Some of this can be done by finding short lengths of matching base pair sequences, which might indicate a starting point where a longer fragment that has varied through evolution can slot in.
If they can map the complete thylacine genome, CRISPR technology can be used to alter the DNA in a numbat cell, to code for thylacine.
Standard stem cell and reproductive techniques are then used to turn that cell back into a living animal.
Scientists in several countries are engaged in dedicated projects to bring extinct animals back from the dead — from the thylacine to the woolly mammoth, the passenger pigeon to the gastric-brooding frog.
Research groups like California-based biotech and conservation company Revive and Restore have been working for years to de-extinct the mammoth and passenger pigeon.
In Australia, thylacine de-extinction research has started and stopped, and recently started again with a $5 million philanthropic investment for the University of Melbourne.
The numbat is a close genetic relative to the thylacine with about 95% of its DNA the same as the thylacine.
The idea is to first line up the matching 95 per cent of the two species' DNA, and then try to work out where the remaining 5 per cent of the thylacine DNA fits into the puzzle.
Some of this can be done by finding short lengths of matching base pair sequences, which might indicate a starting point where a longer fragment that has varied through evolution can slot in.
If they can map the complete thylacine genome, CRISPR technology can be used to alter the DNA in a numbat cell, to code for thylacine.
Standard stem cell and reproductive techniques are then used to turn that cell back into a living animal.