[extropy-chat] Snuppy, frst dog cloned

[Giu1i0 Pri5c0]

I love my doggy Sacha <http://prisco.info/sacha/> very much and would clone 
her if given the chance. And I think once pet cloning technology is refined 
and deployed commercially, there will be a profitable market niche for 
companies like Genetic Savings and Clone (link below). And, I don't see 
anything wrong with this. But of course, the main value of end-to-end 
cloning research will be a better understanding of biology that can be used 
to improve the quality of life of human patients.
The Scientist <http://www.the-scientist.com/news/20050803/01>: Move over, 
Fluffy; cloning isn't just for
cats<http://www.the-scientist.com/2004/10/25/12/1>anymore. The South
Korean researchers who announced
earlier this year <http://www.biomedcentral.com/pubmed/14963337> that they 
had successfully derived stem cells from a cloned human embryo have now created 
the first-ever dog clone, a male Afghan hound, they
report<http://www.nature.com>in
*Nature* this week.
Hwang attributed his team's success to their ability to produce a nuclear 
transfer construct using in vivo matured oocytes, to transfer it into a 
surrogate mother at an early stage of development without in vitro embryo 
culture, and to optimize the conditions for transfer "through trial and 
error."
The team chose an Afghan hound because the dog was known to have a "gentle 
and docile pedigree," Hwang said. They also had access to a good collection 
of photos of the dog, which had unique fur color and appearance, when it was 
a puppy, he said, making it easier to distinguish whether the clone was 
identical. Microsatellite analysis of genomic DNA from the donor, the cloned 
dogs, and the surrogates confirmed that the clones were genetically 
identical to the donor.
Phil Damiani, chief scientific officer of Genetic Savings &
Clone<http://www.savingsandclone.com/>,
said that his company remained convinced that their technology - which 
relies on chromatin transfer <http://www.biomedcentral.com/pubmed/13679310>, 
rather than nuclear transfer, and egg and embryo assessment prior to cloning 
and transfer–would eventually make it possible to clone dogs
commercially<http://www.the-scientist.com/2005/1/31/41/1>.
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