Originally published on October 25, 2013
A cloning firm from South Korea called "Sooam Biotech" has recently launched a competition for residents of the U.K that will allow one lucky person to clone their beloved pet for free.
The company says the process can begin only after scientists confirm that the cells are viable. Then scientists will take the viable cells from the dog's skin and extract the nucleus which contains DNA. The nucleus will then be injected into a donor dog's enucleated egg using the fusion process. The fused cell then begins to multiply and grow eventually producing a cloned embryo. The embryo is then transferred into a surrogate dog, and a clone puppy is delivery around 60 days later. The cloned puppies DNA will be identical to that of the cell donor dog.
The chief technical officer of Sooam Biotech, Dr. Woo Suk Hwang pioneered the cloning technique in 2005 and has successfully cloned more than 400 dogs. The company is the only firm offering commercial dog cloning. The price for cloning a canine currently stands at around US$100,000 per dog. The winner of the competition will be flown to Seoul next year to watch the cloning process as a part of a documentary for British TV station Channel 4.
Reproduction using cloning has been a controversial issue since Dolly the sheep was cloned in Scotland in 1996. Scientists hope the technique can one day be used to clone specialised rescue dogs or endangered animals.
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