First Cloned Dog Has Its Day

Yep, you knew it was coming. I'm having too much fun to stop posting about the cost of pets.

Here's a piece from Fortune that talks about the first cloned dog (subscription required). I'll just cut to the chase:

A lot of U.S. researchers are muttering "doggone it" today: South Korean scientists have won the international race to clone a dog. A team led by Seoul National University’s Woo Suk Hwang, renowned for world-leading stem-cell research, reported in the journal Nature today that it has produced two genetic duplicates of a male Afghan hound.

Unfortunately, this doesn't mean your dog will be available to be cloned tomorrow:

But the Koreans’ work isn’t likely to enable the commercial cloning of adored Fidos and Fifis anytime soon. Dog-cloning still requires world-class craftsmanship that isn’t yet available to pet owners. Genetic Savings, however, is developing a technology called chromatin transfer that promises to make it easier. The firm’s success remains to be seen. But its feline feats give hope—as that great naturalist Hamlet said, "The cat will mew, and dog will have his day."

However, you know that the ability to clone pet dogs will be made available as soon as it's a viable science. There's too much $$$$$$ at stake. Can you imagine what they could get for a cloned dog? $25,000? $50,000? More?

Comments

[Dan]

You must not have been reading the news lately, because Dr. Hwang's research has recently been found to be falsified and he's resigned his position.:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1145236,00.html

[FMF]

Does this mean the cost of a cloned dog (when they can make one) will be even higher??????? ;-)

[Jim Robinson]

See http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2005/1229/1
for some of the latest information on this topic. The original paper, published in May 2005, has been discredited.