On a Tuesday in mid-November, Franklin West, Ph.D., and world-leading expert in stem cell biology, fed giraffes at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo. His interest in the popular tourist destination was related to his reason for coming to Omaha. West focuses on cellular reprogramming for agriculture and conservation and the development of stem cell therapies for neural injury and diseases including stroke, traumatic brain injury and dementia. The University of Georgia associate professor spoke at the November Science Cafe. His talk was titled “Saving the Sumatran Tiger and Clouded Leopard – Developing Technology to Turn Tiger Skin Cells into Sperm” to a packed room at the Slowdown.
West said it was a larger-than-usual audience for his science talks. His self-described polarizing topic didn’t cause any uproar. He spoke about saving endangered species, and using land conservation as a traditional approach to solving such a problem. Conserving land is harder when the land is disputed, in areas such as the Congo or Darfur, West continued. That’s where a biological repository, also called a frozen zoo, comes into play, said West.
The goal of West’s research is to collect and store genetic material from a number of animal species to create live individuals, ultimately adding an individual’s genetics back into populations. It is a difficult and tedious process – one that requires a skin biopsy to collect skin cells, manipulating them into stem cells which in turn then become sperm in order to be artificially inseminated in the animal. West said there are other ways of collecting samples, such as cheek swabs or urine samples, but those methods result in fewer cells.
Dr. West and his team of 13 undergraduates and three Ph.D. students at the University of Georgia work closely with Zoo Atlanta. Their research focuses on cats, due to the extensive knowledge of their reproductive physiology and West said, it’s easier to find recipient animals.
You can watch Dr. West’s entire presentation here.
If you wish to support Dr. West’s work donate here and write TIGER FUND in the special instructions/comments section.
Read more about West’s lab team here.