1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:06,520 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey 2 00:00:06,559 --> 00:00:10,360 Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel bomb here. It might not surprise 3 00:00:10,400 --> 00:00:13,560 Speaker 1: you to hear that many wild animal populations are struggling. 4 00:00:14,120 --> 00:00:16,520 Speaker 1: At this point. Humans and the livestock that we grow 5 00:00:16,600 --> 00:00:20,639 Speaker 1: for food account for of mammal biomass on Earth. We 6 00:00:20,760 --> 00:00:23,440 Speaker 1: take up a lot of space with our bodies, livestock, 7 00:00:23,480 --> 00:00:28,400 Speaker 1: and infrastructure, and that's driving wild animals into extinction. But 8 00:00:28,600 --> 00:00:32,000 Speaker 1: we twenty one century humans are smart, right. Can't we 9 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:34,400 Speaker 1: figure out a way to help these animals survive or 10 00:00:34,560 --> 00:00:37,120 Speaker 1: at least save some of their genetic material until such 11 00:00:37,120 --> 00:00:39,680 Speaker 1: a time when we can help make, for example, new 12 00:00:39,760 --> 00:00:42,840 Speaker 1: Sumatran tigers, of which there are only about four hundred 13 00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:46,360 Speaker 1: alive today in the wild. The concept of creating a 14 00:00:46,360 --> 00:00:49,599 Speaker 1: repository for the genetic material of endangered species has been 15 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:52,479 Speaker 1: around for a while. Projects like the Frozen Zoo at 16 00:00:52,479 --> 00:00:54,680 Speaker 1: the San Diego Zoo and the Frozen Arc in the 17 00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:59,120 Speaker 1: UK have been cryogenically storing genetic material from captive mammals, 18 00:00:59,440 --> 00:01:02,200 Speaker 1: that is, raising it in liquid nitrogen at temperatures around 19 00:01:02,200 --> 00:01:07,440 Speaker 1: negative three degrees fahrenheit that's negative one celsius. Samples from 20 00:01:07,440 --> 00:01:10,440 Speaker 1: everything from the Pacific pocket mouse to the clouded leopard 21 00:01:10,480 --> 00:01:14,600 Speaker 1: have been stored since the nighties, and cloning endangered species 22 00:01:14,680 --> 00:01:18,200 Speaker 1: has proven possible. In the early two thousands, scientists successfully 23 00:01:18,200 --> 00:01:21,040 Speaker 1: cloned a couple of them, an African wildcat and an 24 00:01:21,080 --> 00:01:25,240 Speaker 1: Asian ox. But we spoke with Franklin West, an assistant 25 00:01:25,240 --> 00:01:28,600 Speaker 1: professor in the Regenerative Bioscience Center at the University of Georgia. 26 00:01:29,319 --> 00:01:32,559 Speaker 1: He said, the problem with cloning is it's highly inefficient. 27 00:01:32,920 --> 00:01:35,080 Speaker 1: The process is tricky even with animals that are well 28 00:01:35,160 --> 00:01:39,200 Speaker 1: understood and described, like housecats, dogs, horses, and cows. So 29 00:01:39,280 --> 00:01:42,240 Speaker 1: when you start talking about cloning endangered animal species, it 30 00:01:42,280 --> 00:01:44,959 Speaker 1: gets tough because we just don't have enough information about 31 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:49,560 Speaker 1: the animal. Cloning also requires eggs from the animal you're 32 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:52,600 Speaker 1: trying to clone, but obtaining gammeats, that is, sperm and 33 00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:56,040 Speaker 1: eggs from a live animal can be extremely difficult, especially 34 00:01:56,080 --> 00:01:59,080 Speaker 1: an endangered one. Sperm can be taken from a zoo 35 00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:01,840 Speaker 1: animal that has reads sly died, but eggs present the 36 00:02:01,880 --> 00:02:06,040 Speaker 1: real challenge, especially because as in human IVF treatments, the 37 00:02:06,080 --> 00:02:09,120 Speaker 1: best results often come from having lots of eggs available. 38 00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:12,880 Speaker 1: West said, most of the time it's too risky to 39 00:02:12,880 --> 00:02:15,960 Speaker 1: collect eggs because you need to superovulate the animal, and 40 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:20,040 Speaker 1: sometimes there's a surgical procedure involved. With most endangered species, 41 00:02:20,080 --> 00:02:22,400 Speaker 1: the best you can get is a skin biopsy. But 42 00:02:22,600 --> 00:02:24,800 Speaker 1: skin is never going to turn into a new tiger, 43 00:02:24,919 --> 00:02:27,280 Speaker 1: so what do you do with that. It's almost of 44 00:02:27,360 --> 00:02:31,400 Speaker 1: limited value without some sort of functionalization of it, which 45 00:02:31,560 --> 00:02:34,280 Speaker 1: is why West and his colleagues have developed the technology 46 00:02:34,320 --> 00:02:36,799 Speaker 1: to turn almost any cell in the body there are 47 00:02:36,880 --> 00:02:40,600 Speaker 1: some exceptions, but very few, into a pluripotent stem cell, 48 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:42,880 Speaker 1: which is a cell that can turn into any other 49 00:02:42,919 --> 00:02:46,520 Speaker 1: type of cell in the body. West and his colleagues 50 00:02:46,560 --> 00:02:48,760 Speaker 1: have had success in turning a skin cell into a 51 00:02:48,800 --> 00:02:52,960 Speaker 1: stem cell and turning those stem cells into sperm. West 52 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:55,239 Speaker 1: says they could potentially even turn a stem cell into 53 00:02:55,240 --> 00:02:57,280 Speaker 1: an egg as well, which would get around to the 54 00:02:57,280 --> 00:03:00,600 Speaker 1: problem with cloning not having an egg source. If they 55 00:03:00,600 --> 00:03:03,320 Speaker 1: can use this assisted reproductive technology to make both of 56 00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:06,079 Speaker 1: these male and female gammeats, they could use them together 57 00:03:06,120 --> 00:03:09,680 Speaker 1: to make a live offspring. The team has begun by 58 00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:12,240 Speaker 1: banking skin cells from a Sumatran tiger and a clouded 59 00:03:12,280 --> 00:03:16,280 Speaker 1: leopard at Zoo Atlanta. West explained we could have done 60 00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:18,880 Speaker 1: cows or horses but we chose cats for a number 61 00:03:18,880 --> 00:03:21,000 Speaker 1: of reasons. The fact that we know a lot about 62 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:24,680 Speaker 1: domestic housecat reproductive physiology makes it reasonable to do larger 63 00:03:24,720 --> 00:03:27,880 Speaker 1: cats like clouded leopards. Ultimately, what I'd like to do 64 00:03:27,960 --> 00:03:31,919 Speaker 1: is use domesticated cats as recipient animals. Theoretically, you could 65 00:03:31,919 --> 00:03:36,560 Speaker 1: transfer clouded leopard embryo into a housecat. In addition to 66 00:03:36,560 --> 00:03:39,440 Speaker 1: creating new animals, this technology might be useful in helping 67 00:03:39,440 --> 00:03:43,400 Speaker 1: protect vulnerable populations of animals from disease. For instance, the 68 00:03:43,440 --> 00:03:46,280 Speaker 1: lions in the Serengetti National Park have become vulnerable to 69 00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:50,120 Speaker 1: canine distemper, a disease related to measles and humans, which 70 00:03:50,200 --> 00:03:54,360 Speaker 1: is most commonly found in domesticated dogs. This technology could 71 00:03:54,360 --> 00:03:58,280 Speaker 1: potentially be used to generate distemper resistant lions. Because it's 72 00:03:58,280 --> 00:04:01,120 Speaker 1: almost impossible to vaccinate in the injured animals in mass 73 00:04:01,440 --> 00:04:03,920 Speaker 1: this might be an option to breed resistant animals that 74 00:04:03,920 --> 00:04:12,760 Speaker 1: could introduce resistance into natural populations. Today's episode was written 75 00:04:12,800 --> 00:04:15,800 Speaker 1: by Jesselyn Shields and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff 76 00:04:15,800 --> 00:04:17,799 Speaker 1: is a production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. 77 00:04:18,120 --> 00:04:20,279 Speaker 1: For more in this and lots of other futuristic topics, 78 00:04:20,320 --> 00:04:22,960 Speaker 1: visit our home planet, how stuff Works dot com. And 79 00:04:23,080 --> 00:04:25,240 Speaker 1: for more podcasts. For my heart Radio, visit the I 80 00:04:25,279 --> 00:04:27,919 Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 81 00:04:27,960 --> 00:04:28,760 Speaker 1: your favorite shows.