Colossal Biosciences, which calls itself “the world’s first de-extinction company,” has created stem cells it thinks will hasten the company’s marquee goal of resurrecting the woolly mammoth. The team’s research describing the accomplishment will be hosted on the preprint server bioRxiv. The cells are induced pluripotent stem cells , a type of cell that can be reprogrammed to develop into any other type of cell.
As described in a 2016 report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Species Survival Commission, “Proxy is used here to mean a substitute that would represent in some sense another entity – the extinct form.” The group added that “Proxy is preferred to facsimile, which implies creation of an exact copy.