Cloning The Frozen

A team of Japanese geneticists used cells from a dead mouse frozen for 16 years and successfully created healthy clones. They took dead brain and blood cells from the frozen mice, and injected the nuclei from them directly into unfertilized mouse eggs. By extracted inner cell mass from each embryo, they generated embryonic stem cells. Eventually they were able to produce 13 mouse pups. The nuclei from these cells were then transferred into mouse eggs, resulting in the production of healthy pups.

"But in dead cells the cell membrane is broken and the fusion method cannot be used for cloning. In our method, it does not matter whether the donor cells are alive or dead," Wakayama explained.

The technique could eventually lead to the resurrection of extinct animals such as the woolly mammoth, scientists stated in November 2008.