Controversial scientist plans to clone a mammoth

South Korean Hwang Woo Suk was long regarded as a cloning pioneer - until he was charged with having faked much of his stem cell research. Now, he is back with a new project: he wants to clone a woolly mammoth.

South Korean researcher and cloning pioneer Hwang Woo Suk hasn't been in the scientific spotlight ever since he claimed to have successfully created human embryonic stem cells by cloning six years ago, and that research turned out to be fake.

Now, the controversial veterinarian and researcher is in the headlines again. He wants to use frozen tissue samples to recreate an animal that last walked the earth some 10,000 years ago: a woolly mammoth.

Hwang Woo Su successfully cloned Snuppy in 2005

The scientist recently signed an accord to that effect with a university in Russia's Sakha Republic.

Vast areas of the republic are covered in permafrost that has begun to thaw over the years due to climate change, uncovering the well-preserved remains of several mammoths that had lain frozen in the ice for more than 10.000 years.

To clone new life from the remains, Hwang needs an intact cell nucleus that he hopes could contain the animal's entire genetic information. The scientist would then have to replace the nuclei of egg cells from a related species - in this case an Indian elephant - with those taken from the mammoth's cells.

It is possible - in principle. Three years ago, as part of a mammoth cloning project in Japan, researchers there managed to clone a mouse from the cells of a rodent that had been frozen for 16 years. Nothing has been heard of this project since then.

Fragmented DNA

Alex Greenwood, a biologist at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Berlin, is skeptical about the mammoth-cloning project. A first look into the microscope may give scientists reason for hope because they can discern contours of cells and even cell nuclei in the mammoth tissue. But the structures are not intact, Greenwood said, "They are frozen imprints of ancient cells."

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Controversial scientist plans to clone a mammoth