Attack of the Clones

Notorious scientist cloned dog from Britain

Was born first puppy cloned from British dogs – it’s a clone dachshund named Winnie, owned by a certain Rebecca Smith from London. It is reported The Telegraph. His “released in life” Korean scientist Hwang In Suk (Hwang Woo Suk) – a leading specialist Suam Biotechnology Center (Sooam Biotech), which nearly destroyed the reputation of a scandal around 2005 stories cloning of human embryos .

Ms. Smith won the competition to participate in the cloning program. Her new pet was born March 30, from cells taken from the skin 12-year-old dachshund Winnie. Dog DNA introduced into an egg from the donor dog, took out her fetus developed from a surrogate mother dog.

However, biotechnology warn dog owners: do not expect that you will get after cloning pet with the exact same behavior and character. Genes new dog will be the same, but on the development of the animal is influenced by many factors, including the power to bear pregnancy mother and first impressions puppy after birth. “Even the expectation that the puppy will behave the same as the old favorite, which is derived from a similar appearance can affect the behavior of the dog,” – says Dr. Robin Lovell-Badge (Robin Lovell-Badge) from the British National Institute for Medical Research.

Recall that in 2004 I Suk Hwang – scientist contribute the birth clone British dachshund Winnie – Korea became a national hero when he announced the world’s first cloned human embryos. This discovery could lead to a revolution in the practice of obtaining stem cells, on which the half of modern biotechnological innovations in the field of medicine. And in August 2005, his group has brought the world the first cloned dog – since Korean heart Suam successfully engaged in operations on dogs.

But in late 2005, after the information about the details of his research (in particular, the use of eggs from the female part of the team), the special commission checked the group’s work and the findings were disappointing. Most of the data in the work on stem cells was faked. In Suk Hwang admitted charges of falsification, publicly apologized and resigned from his post as professor at Seoul University. It was a big blow to the biotech research in general and to the reputation of South Korean science in particular. Nevertheless claims to work on cloning dogs was not, it was duplicated independently of this research group. And now Koreans boast that they have cloned hundreds of dogs, dozens of them – at the request of American masters.

However, by itself, cloning dogs – not news. Moreover – to 2010 was cloned more than 20 species of animals : cats, dogs, wolves, horses, pigs, mouflon.