With only seven northern white rhinos left in the world, creating eggs and sperm from stem cells offers the possibility of salvaging some of the species.
What's the News: In an effort to help preserve endangered rhinos and primates, biologists have converted skin cells taken from the animals into pluripotent stem cells, which can grow into nearly anything, given the right conditions. They might even grow into egg and sperm cells, eventually, the researchers think, suggesting a cell biological route to conservation. How the Heck:
The samples came from a repository at the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research called the Frozen Zoo, where cells from 8600 animals of 800 species have been preserved.
Using lab-grown viruses, the team inserted four genes that have been shown to make human cells revert to their pluripotent state into skin cells from the northern white rhino and the drill, a primate that's ...
