Scientists have managed to produce stemcells from endangered species for the first time, a breakthrough that could save endangered species and could even revive extinct ones.

A team of scientists headed by Jeanne Loring at the Scripps Research Institute produced stemcells from frozen skin cells of two endangered species, viz. an African primate called a drill and the northern white rhinoceros.

Oliver Ryder, director of genetics at the San Diego Zoo and co-author of the study, said that stemcell technology provides hope to tackle the problem of extinction of species as efforts to preserve species and habitats do not always work.

George Daley, a professor at Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School, said that the technology would allow scientists to capture a genome in a way that is reproducible and will also allow them to study tissue development long after the animal is gone.

However, Prof. Daley added, “Whether or not this can assist in reproduction is somewhat more speculative, and that may or may not ever pan out.”

Conservationists in San Diego started freezing skin samples from endangered species in 1972, in a hope that scientists would some day be able to use the cells to save species that are in danger of extinction.