The U.S. firm that claims to hold sole worldwide rights to commercially clone dogs says steps are being taken to sue the Korean firm that has cloned a dog for a California woman, the Korea Times reports today.

Start Licensing, a U.S. firm that issued a cloning license to the American firm BioArts International, has filed a cease and desist letter against RNL Bio, a Seoul company working with Seoul National University, which produced the world's first cloned dog in 2005.

RNL Bio said that it had not been notified of any legal action, and hinted it would countersue, according to the Times.

Continue reading "Cloning clash comes to a head" »

Posted by John Woestendiek at 7:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

The only two companies in the business of cloning dogs -- one in South Korea, one in California -- are at odds, both claiming they are the sole legally authorized dog cloners worldwide.

We got our first taste of the dispute when we published an entry about the impending birth of the South Korean company's first commercially cloned dog --  a pit bull terrier named Booger, created using cells from the ear tissue of the donor dog.

To update you on that report, there are now three live fetuses -- little Boogers, if you will -- growing in two surrogate mother dogs, both of which are expected to give birth in late July, according to the South Korean company, RNL Bio.

RNL Bio, has cloned previous dogs (see here), but this was its first -- and the first ever, it claimed -- cloned for an individual customer.

When we reported that, the California company -- BioArts International, which has, through a collaboration with a different South Korean company, produced three clones of Missy, the pet of a BioArts' executive -- took issue.

Continue reading "Clone wars" »

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There are only a few more hours remaining in a contest with an unusual prize -- a cloned canine, my fellow dogbloggers at the Los Angeles Times report.

According to Unleashed, the Times animal blog, the Califronia company that last month announced a series of online auctions ($100,000 minimum bid) to clone dogs is now sponsoring an essay contest in which the winner gets one free dog cloning.

In "The Golden Clone Giveaway," the winning essay writer will get his or her favorite pooch duplicated from DNA, BioArts International has announced.

"Over the objections of our accountant, we have decided to give away one dog cloning slot to the family with the most 'clone-worthy' dog in the world," said BioArts CEO Lou Hawthorne (pictured with dogs cloned from his family pet).

Contestants have until 6 p.m. today to submit a photo of their furry friend and a 500-word essay describing why their pooch's genetic replicas should live on.

BioArts claims to be the only authorized cloner of dogs, but RNL Bio in South Korea has produced several already. The two companies are at odds, with BioArts saying RNL is not licensed to do what is doing, and RNL saying BioArts has yet to actually clone a dog on its own. The dogs pictured with  Hawthorne above, RNL says, were cloned by BioArts in collaboration with Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in Korea.

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The Korean biotechnology company that took part in cloning the world's first dog reports that it has successfully produced four cloned pups from the cells of a famous cancer-sniffing dog named Marine.

With training, the company expects the four cloned canines to be able to sniff out cancer cells as well, according to a report in today's Korea Times.

"The four black retrievers were born on May 28,'' Ra Jeong-chan, president of RNL Bio said. They were named as Marine-R, Marine-N, Marine-L and Marine-S. The cloning team of RNL Bio, led by Seoul National University (SNU) professor Lee Byeong-chun, implanted cloned fetuses from Marine into a surrogate mother in April.

RNL Bio says the four retrievers will be sent to Japan after three months to join the training program for cancer detection. Each cloned dog will be priced at $480,000, the company said.

Research has shown some dogs have the ability to detect breast, prostate, lung and skin cancer at a treatable stage. The cancer cells give off a scent that is not present in healthy cells, which can be detected by dogs in breath or urine samples.

RNL Bio recently recreated seven drug-sniffing dogs last year at the request of the Korea Customs Service. The team also says it cloned the world's first commercial dog, ordered by a California woman who wanted her dead pitbull terrier cloned.

The Seoul National University team created the world's first cloned dog, an Afghan hound named Snuppy, who was cloned in 2005.

(Photo courtesy RNL Bio)

Posted by John Woestendiek at 7:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
                    

The first commercially cloned dog is expected to be born in September -- a pit bull terrier created using cells from the ear tissue of the donor dog, named Booger.

RNL Bio, a company in Seoul, Korea, received its first commercial order in February from a California resident who will pay $150,000 for the cloning.

Company officials have said the owner of Booger -- the dog died, but its tissue was saved -- is a woman whose dog had helped her with a disability.

RNL is one of two biotech companies that have launched dog cloning businesses this year. A California company, BioArts International, also has plans to commercially clone dogs. Both RNL and BioArts use expertise developed at Seoul National University.

In the procedure, cells from Booger will be inserted into ova which are then implanted into surrogate mother dogs.

``The project is doing much better than our initial expectations. Booger (Junior) will be born no later than September,'' Ra Jeong-chan, president of RNL Bio, told The Korea Times Monday.

Ra said he expects the demand for cloning to explode when the market price is lowered to between $20,000 and $30,000. ``We can produce about 30 cloned dogs every year, and we plan to expand the capacity to around 200 soon," Ra said.

It was a team at Seoul National University team, led by Hwang Woo-suk, that produced the world's first cloned dog, Snuppy, in 2005. Hwang was later fired by the university for fabricating and using incorrect data in research papers, but he and his staff continued the dog cloning research at the university and other research institutes.

BioArts, which is acting as a sales agent for Hwang's new team in Seoul, is to auction off five dog cloning slots on June 18 with a starting bid of $100,000.

Posted by John Woestendiek at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

A California company plans to auction off its dog cloning services next month through a string of online auctions, with the bidding to start at $100,000, the New York Times reported yesterday.

The company, BioArts International, will auction off five dog clonings. It is calling the project "Best Friends Again," and has scheduled the auctions for June 18, according to the Times report. (You can read it here.)

BioArts has arranged a partnership with the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in South Korea, where scientists Hwang Woo Suk cloned the first dog, a male Afghan hound, in 2005. He and his Korean colleagues named that dog Snuppy, for Seoul National University puppy.

The company began work last fall to clone its first dog, using genetic samples from his family dog, a border collie-husky mix named Missy who died in 2002. Three clones of Missy have been produced, he said. (That's them with BioArts CEO Lou Hawthorne in the AP photo above.)

The company guarantees a healthy dog that resembles the original. Hawthorne said that BioArts would not spend the money “unless and until we deliver a cloned dog that they sign off on.”

And so technology marches on. It won't be long until it's a matter of heading to the mall to get your pet cloned, or perhaps a drive-thru where you place your order and drop off your dog's tissue sample in the first window, pick up an identical pup at the next. Or perhaps a big warehouse store -- a Clone Depot.

In fact, this pet cloning thing is making headlines often enough that we have created a category for it (see the rightside rail for our categories) -- a place where you can find all our past and future cloning entries. But no duplicates. We promise.

Posted by John Woestendiek at 7:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
                    

These five cloned dogs, all named Toppy, are following the bouncing ball as part of their training to be drug and explosive detecting dogs in South Korea.

The country that created the world's first cloned canine plans to put duplicated dogs on patrol to sniff out drugs and explosives, the Associated Press reports.

"Toppy" is a combination of the words "tomorrow" and "puppy",

The Korean Customs Service unveiled Thursday seven cloned Labrador retrievers -- the other two are also Toppys -- being trained near Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. The dogs were born five to six months ago after being separately cloned from a skilled drug-sniffing canine in active service.

Officials say using clone dogs for the tasks could help reduce costs.

The cloning work was conducted by a team of Seoul National University scientists who in 2005 successfully created the world's first known dog clone, an Afghan hound named Snuppy.

"They have a superior nature. They are active and excel in accepting the training," said Kim Nak-seung, a trainer at the Customs Service-affiliated dog training center. In February, all seven dogs passed a behavior test aimed at finding whether they are genetically qualified to work as sniffing dogs. Only 10 percent to 15 percent of naturally born dogs typically pass the test.

If the cloned dogs succeed in other tests for physical strength, concentration and sniffing ability, they will be put to work by July next year at airports and harbors across South Korea, according to the training center.

Read the full story here.

(AP Photo by Lee Jin-man) 

Posted by John Woestendiek at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
                    

A company in South Korea says it has received an order for the world's first commercial cloning of a pet — a request from an American woman to to re-create her beloved dog "Booger."

The Voice of America, in a report today, said RNL Bio will charge $150,000 to clone the California woman's pitbull terrier, using tissue from her dead pet.

The deal was first reported yesterday by the Korea Times, which said the actual cloning would be conducted by Seoul National University, while RNL Bio handled the business side.

The company's chief executive said he expects up to 500 orders within a few years from rich pet lovers in the U.S. and elsewhere.

"There are many people who want to clone their pet dogs in Western countries, even at this high price," Ra Jeong-Chan said. In this particular case, he added, "it seems that (the woman) had a disability and her dog helped her cope with the problem, so she was eager to get a clone of Booger."

He said Booger's owner had refrigerated the dog's ear tissue. Cells were extracted and inserted into ova implanted into eight dogs.

A Seoul National University team created the world's first cloned dog, an Afghan hound named Snuppy, in 2005.

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