South Korean and Russian scientists bid to clone mammoth "The first and hardest mission is to restore mammoth cells," another Sooam researcher, Hwang In-Sung, told AFP. His colleagues would join Russian scientists in trying to find well-preserved tissue with an undamaged gene. By replacing the nuclei of egg cells from an elephant with those taken from the mammoth's somatic cells, embryos with mammoth DNA could be produced and planted into elephant wombs for delivery, he said. Sooam will use an Indian elephant for its somatic cell nucleus transfer. The somatic cells are body cells, such as those of internal organs, skin, bones and blood. "This will be a really tough job, but we believe it is possible because our institute is good at cloning animals," Hwang In-Sung said. South Korean experts have previously cloned animals including a cow, a cat, dogs, a pig and a wolf. Last October Hwang Woo-Suk unveiled eight cloned coyotes in a project sponsored by a provincial government.