
The drill monkey is the most endangered primate in Africa. Image: Shutterstock
Scientists have used skin cells to produce the stem cells from the drill monkey and the Northern white rhinoceros.
In 2006 the director of genetics at the Scripps Research Institute to suggest producing stem cells from endangered species. Ryder had established the Frozen Zoo, a collection of skin cells and other material from over 800 species.
Five years later, the researchers have successfully produced stem cells from this material. The process involved skin cells taken from adult individuals, instead of embryonic stem cells that have been isolated from an embryo.
“Induced pluripotent stem cells and embryonic stem cells are almost exactly alike,” said Scripps Research Institute scientist Jeanne Loring, lead author of the study published in
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