Do the words "mammoth mice" sound a little oxymoronic to you? Well, in our modern age of gene editing, they simply represent a new reality.

That's because scientists at Colossal Biosciences say they've genetically engineered tiny rodents to possess the iconic shaggy locks of the woolly mammoth, in a stepping stone towards reviving the extinct creatures.

So, behold the extremely adorable "woolly mouse." With three times the hair length of an ordinary lab mouse, they're as fluffy as the titans they're imitating were enormous. And with any luck, the researchers at the "de-extinction" startup believe it's a step toward one day reintroducing mammoths back into their natural, frigid habitats.

"For us, it's an incredibly big deal," Beth Shapiro, chief science officer at Colossal, told NPR. "This is really validation that what we have in mind for our longer-term de-extinction project is really going to work." 

 

The researchers, whose work on the mice is yet to be peer-reviewed, turned to the woolly mammoth's closest living relative, the Asian elephant. By comparing the Asian elephant's DNA to surviving genetic material from mammoths, the team identified the genes responsible for some of the mammoth's most distinguishing characteristics, including its hair and body fat, and then edited the corresponding genes in mice embryos to recreate these traits.

Per CNN's coverage, some of the genes the team modified included one known as FGF5, which controls cycles of hair growth, to create longer hair. And to lighten the strands to golden hues, the researchers modified another gene, MC1R, which controls the production of melanin, a natural pigment produced by the body. (We should mention that Matthew Sechrest — who was previously a board member at Futurism's parent company Recurrent and who owns an ongoing minority non-control equity stake — is an investor in Colossal. He had no involvement in this story.)

The results do seem pretty mammoth-like, at least on a surface level. But as impressive as the work is, some scientists aren't convinced that these changes are anything more than purely cosmetic. 

"My biggest problem with the paper is that there is nothing addressing whether the modified mice are cold-tolerant — through introducing traits that are apparent in mammoths — which is the justification given for carrying out the work," Robin Lovell-Badge, head of the Stem Cell Biology Developmental Genetics Laboratory at London's Francis Crick Institute, told CNN.

"As it is, we have some cute looking hairy mice, with no understanding of their physiology, behavior, etc," added Lovell-Badge, who was not involved in the research. "It doesn't get them any closer to know if they would eventually be able to give an elephant useful mammoth-like traits and we have learned little biology."

Needless to say, there are also serious questions to be raised about pursuing "de-extinction" over proven conservation methods, "Jurassic Park" overtones aside. Colossal argues that reintroducing mammoths — or modern approximations of them — into the Arctic could play a revitalizing role in the local ecosystem, and could even help protect the region's melting permafrost by packing down the snow and ice that covers it through their heavy footsteps. But this sounds pretty far-fetched to other scientists.

"They sort of want to mess around on a pretty large scale," Karl Flessa, a professor of geosciences at the University of Arizona, told NPR. "They don't know what would happen. They can't really assure me that, 'Oh, everything will be just fine. Everything will be just like it was back in the Pleistocene.'"

"I'm not ready to play God like that," she added.

More on genetic engineering: A Mouse With Two Dads Has Reached Adulthood


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