Remember the 'Jurassic Park' film series? It features an amusement park where extinct dinosaurs are genetically cloned and bred. If you thought the movie is too ahead of its time, think again. A university in Russia is gearing up for the opening of a Jurassic Park-style cloning facility for extinct animals.

The new Jurassic Park style facility will be a 'world class paleo-genetic scientific hub' in the world's coldest city, Yakutsk. The project currently has a budget of almost US$ 6 million and the project further project details shall be made public at the 4th Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia. 

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Working together with the South Korean SOOAM Biotech Research Foundation, Russian scientists from the Northern-Eastern Federal University will reportedly study the DNA and genetics of several extinct species once native to the area.

According to experts, the centre will aim "to study extinct animals from living cells and to restore such creatures as the woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, cave lion and breeds of long-gone horses". 

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Using tissue samples extracted from Siberian permafrost, the scientists seek to study animals that went extinct many thousands of years ago and, if possible, bring them back to life.

The extremely low temperatures in the Siberian region have helped in preserving the soft tissue of animal remains and the DNA that the tissue cells contain. Though, extracting viable DNA would still be challenging as DNA tends to degrade over time.

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Expert Dr Lena Grigorieva – who drafted plans for the centre – said: “There is no such unique material anywhere else in the world.” If the cloning and breeding are successful, there are plans for the species to roam free in Siberia's Pleistocene Park. 

The Yakutia district houses about 80 percent of the retrieved Pleistocene and Holocene animal samples. Even Harvard University geneticist Professor George Church might plan to inset woolly mammoth genes into an Asian elephant embryo by 2020. 

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Last year, scientists hit a gold mine of two perfectly preserved cave lion cubs that are reported to be 12,000 years old. As of now, there is no official date on when the lab and experiments shall commence from, but the Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to unveil the plan next week. 

Via: The Inquirer