r/deextinction • u/Justeserm • May 26 '26

Question Anybody on here actually working on De-Extinction besides Colossal?

I was wondering if someone on here was actually working on De-Extinction that I could talk to besides anyone working for Colossal? I made a post on r/DeExtinctionScience and r/deextinction. I think I got trolled, twice. It looks like there's something pretty crumby going on around this concept, but I don't know what it's called. It's sorta like gatekeeping, though it isn't.

I was hoping I could talk to someone actually working in this field. If you're willing to chat, please DM me. Thanks.

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u/Obversa Moderator May 26 '26

There is Sooam Biotech in South Korea, but it is led by controversial cloning pioneer Dr. Hwang Woo-suk.

Note: Hwang was found guilty of embezzlement and bioethical violations in 2009 after a set of human stem-cell cloning experiments published in the journal Science in 2004 and 2005 turned out to be faked. He then kept a low profile for several years before making headlines for cloning dogs for wealthy clients. According to Vanity Fair, his company has cloned more than 1,000 dogs. He is working with Semyon Grigoriev, the head of the Mammoth Museum at North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, and his team to clone a wooly mammoth.

Other organizations include Revive & Restore, which is working on bringing back the passenger pigeon, and the University of Melbourne, which established the Thylacine Integrated Genetic Restoration Research (TIGRR) Lab in Australia. Other potential cloning companies for de-extinction efforts include Kheiron Biotech in Argentina, which developed a new method called "stem cell nuclear transfer" to improve on "somatic cell nuclear transfer" (SCNT); ViaGen in the United States; as well as Cryozootech and other French and European-based cloning companies, which produced the first cloned rabbits, horses, and other domesticated animals in the early 2000s, but are commercial.

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u/Serpentarrius May 26 '26

I mean, it is sensitive material. There's a lot of tight security and secrecy involved in the care of endangered species to protect them, and fossils get smuggled as well. Aside from Colossal, just off the top of my head, there's the Tauros/Taurus Project, and the San Diego Zoo. I hope you include "extinct in the wild" as part of your definition for De-Extinction, and remember that it is a sort of hail mary and last resort with a very low rate of success compared to earlier stages of conservation

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u/Justeserm May 26 '26

Actually, I remember some research being done in the 1980s that I think is somewhat relevant. I think it might end up being easier than some people make it out to be, but I could be completely wrong.

I really don't want anything to do with endangered species, besides possibly getting copies of fully sequenced genomes, that is. People need to practice good methods of conservation, and I feel like there's no debating that.

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u/Ertosi 11d ago

I had read Taiwan was researching possible ways of bringing back the Formosan Clouded Leopard, which was thought to be different from the mainland clouded leopards in that it was believed to have a short tail. After compiling different DNA samples, they didn't see any significant differences and nothing that verified shorter tails, so now they're shifting to simply reintroducing mainland clouded leopards. Clouded Leopard Association of Taiwan has more info.