Tasmanian Tiger DNA resurrected?

Question

According to Yahoo news, scientists have resurrected the Tasmanian's Tiger DNA. If this is true, what are the odds of bringing the Tasmanian Tiger back to life? Can it be done now with the resources scientists possess? If not now, how far ahead in the future will this be accomplished?

Answer 1

This would involve (a) sequencing and (b) synthesizing the complete genome of the Tiger. The first is probably easy; since the Tiger only went extinct in the 20th century, there are likely viable DNA samples available, and these days sequencing technology is quite good. The second is much harder; only recently have people actually attempted to do this, with an extremely simple bacterial genome - and even that proved unsuccessful in actually resurrecting the bacteria using the synthesized genome. Mammalian genomes are much harder, since there is a complex 'epigenome' that regulates it, about which we have much less knowledge. So, probably at least a few decades before we're resurrecting extinct species.