TEHRAN, Sep. 08 (MNA) Head of Royan Institute has said the institute has the capability to clone near-extinction cheetah.
Hamid Gourabi told Mehr News that it was possible to clone animals; however, the cloning needs heavy budget and research work. Now we are in a position to preserve animal cells and to use them to clone the species; we received cells of a cheetah which should be euthanized due to severe injuries, and suggested that it be cloned, he added.
Cloning of animals has its own issues; I hope that we save these animals from extinction through cloning them, said Gourabi. However, cloning needs heavy budget and research work; we have the capability to preserve animal cells to use in cloning in later times, he asserted.
In Isfahan, a sheep was cloned by a research group with using ewes ovary and ram cells; however, we found it difficult to save the animal, he noted.