"Deep-frozen wildlife cell samples could enable the future cloning of at-risk species under a technically adventurous initiative by the Fish and Wildlife Service and its private partners.
Dubbed “biobanking,” the collaborative effort has identified 24 endangered animals whose tissue collections may be shelved in one of two DNA lending libraries and kept at minus 196 degrees Celsius until they are checked out in the future.
“Cryogenically preserved cell culture samples are an insurance policy against future losses of biodiversity in the wild,” Seth Willey, deputy assistant regional director of ecological services for the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Southwest Region, said in an email.
Willey added that while “there are no plans for near term use” of the tissue samples and future cloning is not the only purpose to which they might be put, the potential for cloning is helping propel the project forward.
Proponents call the program the “first systematic biobanking pipeline for U.S. threatened and endangered species.” Some could also raise ethical questions about the initiative."
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