The phrase, the Reproductive Science Lab's unofficial motto, is one Kraemer and his colleagues have followed for more than 20 years in their efforts to preserve wildlife through cloning, artificial insemination, embryo transfer and contraception.

In a state where the value of wildlife on a ranch often exceeds the value of its agricultural enterprises, conservation can mean big business in the future.

In 1981 Kraemer, a professor of veterinary physiology, pharmacology and animal science, began his work with wildlife species under a program that would later become known as Noah's Ark.

"The program was designed to train students to help with the preservation of wildlife and endangered species, as well as adopt research on preservation of wildlife," Kraemer said.

The team in the Reproductive Science Lab now includes directors Mark Westhusin, associate professor in the department of veterinary physiology and pharmacology, assistant professor Charles Long and a handful of researchers and graduate students.

As technology has advanced, the project's focus has expanded. The project that initially focused on artificial insemination grew to include embryo transfer -- placing the fertilized egg of an endangered species into the womb of another species that can carry the offspring to term -- in 1987.

In 1986 -- more than a decade before Scottish researchers successfully cloned Dolly the sheep using adult cells -- the program began experimenting with cloning of existing species, using embryo cells.

Since then, Texas A&M University has cloned more species than any other research organization; four of the breakthroughs -- including the first successful cloning of a cat (named CC for carbon copy) in 1991 and Dewey the deer in 2003 -- came through the Reproductive Science Lab.

Wildlife contraception has become a key area of focus for the Noah's Ark Project in recent years.

"Contraception can be used on species that are overpopulating their environment, destroying their habitat," Kraemer said. "When that occurs, they can kill themselves off if their numbers aren't under control."

Kraemer said contraception can also be used to maintain wildlife population in particular cases -- for instance, when animals such as deer or coyotes have become a nuisance or an overpopulation of predators has caused another species to become endangered.

Though the Noah's Ark team has developed processes for artificial insemination, embryo transfer and cloning, processes it is adapting for use in a variety of species, contraception technologies remain in the research stage, Kraemer said.

In researching and adapting these reproductive technologies, Kraemer and his colleagues have developed a mobile laboratory.

"We take the mobile lab where people are managing the wildlife, rather than bringing the animals here," Kraemer said.

The mobile lab allows team members to obtain skin samples from various animals. They can grow them into several million cells, freeze them and later thaw them for use in cloning. In some cases, team members can also collect and transfer embryos and conduct artificial insemination of some animal species on site.

In the near future, Kraemer, said the project will focus on perfecting technology to enable researchers to transfer testicular stem cells from one species to another.

"It's sort of like an embryo transfer, except that you are transferring male sperm cells from one species to another," Kraemer said. "This will be important in the future."

As the Noah's Ark Project seeks to conserve species, one of its objectives is also to maintain genetic diversity, Kraemer said.

"You need variability for a population to survive," he said.

Though reproductive technologies will allow wildlife conservationists to make great strides in wildlife preservation and control, Kraemer said, the technologies being developed under Noah's Ark are not intended to be the whole answer to conservation.

"Habitat preservation is clearly No. 1 on the list of priorities," he said.

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