【原文】Using AI to monitor orphaned elephants in Botswana复兴猛犸象计划 ... ...

Searching for genetic knowledge

A rendering of a woolly mammoth. Biotech company Colossal wants to create a hybrid combining mammoth DNA with that of Asian elephants.

Ben Lamm, founder of Colossal, said AI has a role to play in animal research.

“Some of these technologies we take for granted in corporate America or in defense could be directly applied and have a meaningful impact to conservation,” he said. “These tools aren’t in the hands of the people that really need them.”

Lamm added that Colossal is also working to sequence the genomes of Elephant Havens’ orphans, which will be paired with its AI-based findings, allowing their genes to be compared with their traits as they grow up.

Stevens explained that the information could be used to understand which traits might be passed on by individual elephants.

All this research is filtering down into Colossal’s work constructing the genome of its mammoth-elephant hybrid. Lamm said the company has analyzed 54 mammoth genes, identifying those that express cold tolerance and shaggy coats, and a team is now editing 20 genes into one Asian elephant cell.

Colossal is also in the early stages of developing ovum pick up (OPU) in elephants – extracting unfertilized egg cells called oocyctes from the ovary – a key stage in eventually creating an embryo.

The company hopes that the scientific breakthroughs in its efforts to create a hybrid could ultimately be used by others in animal conservation efforts. “All of the technologies that we develop on our path to de-extinction, we want to try in the wild with partners, and give those to them for free and subsidize the implementation of them,” Lamm added.

“Hopefully in the next five to 10 years, Colossal can show a meaningful difference in elephant conservation.”

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