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  • OUTLOOK

Why stem cells might save the northern white rhino

Biologist Jeanne Loring explains how her work could bring endangered animal species back from the brink.
  1. Julianna Photopoulos
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Up to one million plant and animal species face extinction, many within decades, because of human activities. One of these is the northern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum cottoni). Only two individuals remain, both of them female, making the subspecies functionally extinct. Jeanne Loring, a stem-cell biologist and founding director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California, spoke to Nature about how collecting and reprogramming stem cells could save this species and others from extinction.

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Nature 597, S18-S19 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02626-z

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

This article is part of Nature Outlook: Stem cells, an editorially independent supplement produced with the financial support of third parties. About this content.

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