Posted on 03/08/2006 10:24:17 AM PST by Crackingham
His creator has been discredited and controversy has long surrounded him but scientists confirmed on Wednesday that an Afghan hound named Snuppy is the world's first cloned dog. A panel of experts at Seoul National University and researchers in the United States carried out similar DNA experiments using blood samples from Snuppy, the cell donor dog and the surrogate mother. They said the results showed he was cloned by researchers led by disgraced South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk.
"These data are consistent with Snuppy being a genetic clone of the donor dog Tai," said Elaine Ostrander of the National Human Genome Research Institute, in Bethesda, Maryland.
The Seoul National University Investigation Committee and Ostrander's team both announced their findings in January. Their research studies are published in the latest edition of the journal Nature.
Doubts about whether Snuppy was a genuine clone surfaced after an investigation showed Hwang falsified data in two groundbreaking studies in which he claimed to have cloned human embryos to provide stem cells. It was considered one of the biggest cases of scientific fraud in recent history.
The stem cell research had raised hope for patients suffering from diseases ranging from diabetes to Parkinson's. Stem cells are master cells that have the potential to develop into any cell type in the body. Scientists believe they could act as type of repair system to provide new therapies. But their use is controversial because the most promising stem cells for treating human disease are derived from very early human embryos left over from fertility treatments.
Snuppy, short for Seoul National University puppy, was born last year after a normal pregnancy. He was created using somatic cell nuclear transfer.
No I won't do it. I don't want to get kicked off again........
Snuppy puppy is a happy copy........
Arf
Don't like those 24 hours out of the sandbox, eh?.........
Good grief. This is so sad to say, and if she wasn't such a screeching witch I wouldn't say this, but they could sell masks of this woman's face for Halloween!
It's a pity we're so unprepared for the legal, social, moral & religious effects it will have.
It will happen anyway. Legal, social, moral & religious are of philosophy and has provided little or no new knowledge in a thousand years. All new knowledge since the middle ages has been by science and math. Science and math are not going to wait, philosophy will have to accept what will occur.
I don't see how moral entropy is a prerequisite to technological advancement.
All the shelters full of stray dogs, and these morons have to figure out how to clone them. Excuse me while I go puke.
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