Penn State Live - Tasmanian tiger

Two Penn State scientists in TIME Magazine's Top 100 Most Influential

Penn State University genomicists Webb Miller and Stephan C. Schuster

Friday, May 01, 2009

Penn State professors Stephan Schuster and Webb Miller have been named among "The World's Most Influential People" by TIME Magazine. The May 11 issue of the magazine describes the "TIME 100" winners and their accomplishments. Schuster, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, and Miller, a professor of biology and of computer science and engineering, are leaders of a team that is the first to report the genome-wide sequence of an extinct animal, the woolly mammoth. They developed a novel approach for gene studies that reads ancient DNA highly efficiently. They also were the first to achieve the successful sequencing of genes from the extinct Tasmanian tiger. Their research has opened the door to the widespread, nondestructive use of museum specimens to learn why mammals become extinct and how extinctions might be prevented. (more)

Hair of Tasmanian Tiger yields genes of extinct species

Monday, January 12, 2009

All the genes that the exotic Tasmanian Tiger inherited only from its mother will be revealed by an international team of scientists in a research paper published today (Jan. 13) in the online edition of Genome Research. The research marks the first successful sequencing of genes from this carnivorous marsupial, which looked like a large tiger-striped dog and became extinct in 1936. The research also opens the door to the widespread, nondestructive use of museum specimens to learn why mammals become extinct and how extinctions might be prevented. "Our goal is to learn how to prevent endangered species from going extinct," said Webb Miller, a Penn State professor of biology and of computer science and engineering and a member of the research team that includes scientists from the United States, Sweden, Spain, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Germany. "I want to learn as much as I can about why large mammals become extinct because all my friends are large mammals," Miller said. "However, I am expecting that publication of this paper also will reinvigorate discussions about possibly bringing the extinct Tasmanian Tiger back to life." (more)