I made a special trip to the Australian Museum (Sydney) in October 2002, and was given a behind- the-scenes tour by Dr. Karen Firestone of the Evolutionary Biology Unit.  One of the highlights of my visit was seeing the laboratory where the museum had been working on a new project to retrieve and replicate DNA from preserved thylacine tissue which has been stored at the museum for well over a century.  It is hoped that if the thylacine's complete genome can be obtained through this method, it can eventually be introduced into a host cell from a closely related species such as the Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisii), hopefully allowing it to develop into a viable thylacine embryo.  If successful, thylacines could then be cloned from various tissue samples to create a series of genetically distinct individuals.  These would form a nucleus population which could possibly be used to repopulate the species into protected areas of its former habitat.  Though this ambitious project still faces a number of significant obstacles before the goal of actual thylacine cloning can be realized, the field of genetic engineering is now developing at a very rapid pace, and there is really no way of knowing how much further such a project may progress with the passage of perhaps just 10-15 more years.

    Since the time that the following travelogue was written, there have been some new developments in the thylacine cloning project.  To read a detailed account of the project's history and its current status, please see the pages regarding The Thylacine Cloning Project in the Additional Thylacine Topics section at my Thylacine Museum website.

The Genetics Lab:
 

Within this vial is a small piece of kidney tissue taken from the museum's infant female thylacine specimen which was preserved in alcohol in 1866.  Maintaining a sterile environment is an absolutely crucial factor in this type of work.  To prevent contamination by outside particles, disposable latex gloves must be worn when handling any containers of genetic material.

These vials contain a set of thylacine DNA extractions from different tissue types.  To better the chances of obtaining high quality gene sequences, samples of tissue were taken from various parts of the preserved thylacine's body.  Cells from deep inside the body are preferable to this purpose, as there is less of a possibility that they have been contaminated with genetic material from the outside world (e.g. from bacteria, fungi, etc.).

This is an agar plate of quoll (Dasyurus) DNA (the protamine P1 left domain) cloned into a plasmid and grown up within Escherichia coli bacterial colonies.  The DNA used is obtained via PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction).  This is a process for rapidly amplifying a single DNA molecule into many billions of molecules.

A gene (cytochrome B) extracted from a thylacine tooth is here being grown within E. coli bacteria using the same process as with the quoll DNA in the previous photo.  The purpose of this is to eventually create a genetic library of the thylacine's entire genome, stored within the bacteria.

This is the box of genetic tools that Dr. Firestone uses for cloning thylacine DNA.  To preserve the DNA extracts inside, the box is kept within the lab's ultra-cold (-80° C) freezer.  This freezer is so cold that it will actually "burn" skin to the touch.  Frostbite can easily result without the use of protective gloves.

Some containers of genetic materials for various other projects stored in the ultra-cold freezer.  This unit generates an environment that is far colder than a standard household freezer.  Extremely cold temperatures are necessary in order to preserve the structure of DNA.  Under warmer conditions, this protein rapidly decomposes.

This is an Applied Biosystems 310 automated DNA sequencer - a complex, laser-equipped device that is able to perform a variety of applications such as comparative sequencing, linkage analysis, SNP discovery and validation, and mutation detection.