With a little help from an Alberta dentist and the power of science, John Lennon may someday live to sing another song.

But not any time soon.

Michael Zuk, a dentist based in Red Deer, bought the molar of former Beatle for more than $30,000 (U.S.) in 2011. He has sent it to American researchers who are looking at ways to extract Lennon’s DNA from the tooth.

His goal is to use the information to eventually clone the legendary musician, who was murdered in 1980.

But one cloning expert said it’s impossible to pull off at this point.

Resurrecting Lennon was one of possibilities that drew Zuk into buying the dental memento.

“It’s not just having a piece of tooth from a celebrity, it’s what can you learn from it, and what can you do with it,” he said.

He said experts have told him they’re confident they will be able to extract information from the tooth, and said even if they can’t get the entire genetic sequence, there are ways to fill in the blanks.

But Jose Cibelli, a cloning expert at Michigan State University, said new techniques to sequence DNA will recover most but not the complete set of genetic information, called a genome.

“In addition, to sequence the genome of an individual, one needs to sequence it by pieces and at this point it is impossible to put it together again,” he said in an email. But he added there will come a point when it is possible, and efforts have been successful in lower organisms such as bacteria.

Zuk said his interest in cloning comes from the idea of using science to bring back something once thought to be lost. He’s hoping a lab looking for publicity, or an eccentric, millionaire Beatles fan will bankroll an attempt to clone Lennon, if it comes to that point.

Kerry Bowman, a bioethicist at the University of Toronto, said there are serious ethical issues with this plan.

“It’s extremely personal information, there’s nothing at all related to consent, and we don’t fully understand the implications of putting out a completely sequenced DNA of a human being. We don’t know what that means,” he said.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Zuk also owns a baby tooth belonging to one of John’s sons, Julian, a crown that once adorned Elvis Presley’s mouth, locks of hair from the heads of Paul McCartney, Justin Bieber and Marilyn Monroe, and other celebrity memorabilia.

He said many people recall where they were when Lennon was shot Dec. 8, 1980. “Perhaps the day he was cloned could be the next monumental time in history that people remember.”