DE-EXTINCTION GENETICISTS AIM TO RESURRECT THE TASMANIAN TIGER

The marsupial, also known as a thylacine, could be brought back from extinction within the next decade

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Despite the last known example having been dead for close to 100 years, the Tasmanian tiger could soon be on the prowl once again.

Since its genome was sequenced in 2017, many researchers have been looking into the possibility of bringing the Tasmanian tiger back from extinction.

Now, after teaming up with Dallas-based genetic engineering company Colossal Biosciences, geneticists working at the University of Melbourne say they expect to produce their first baby thylacine within the next decade.

"We can now take the giant leaps to conserve Australia's threatened marsupials and take on the grand challenge of de-extincting animals we had lost," said Prof Andrew Pask, leader of the Thylacine Integrated Genetic Restoration Research (TIGRR) Lab.

"A lot of the challenges with our efforts can be overcome by an army of scientists working on the same problems simultaneously, conducting and collaborating on the many experiments to accelerate discoveries.