Five puppies, genetic copies of “Booger” who died in 2006, with their mother at a laboratory in Seoul, Tuesday. / Yonhap



By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter

A team of South Korean scientists announced Tuesday that they have successfully cloned five puppies of a dead pit bull, the world's first commercially cloned pets.

Researchers led by Seoul National University (SNU) scientist Lee Byeong-chun announced that five puppies, genetic copies of ``Booger'' who died in 2006, were born to two surrogate mothers at their laboratory in Seoul last Monday.

One of the puppies was born through a Caesarian section, while the other four were delivered naturally by the other surrogate mother, according to RNL Bio, the Seoul biotech firm that is promoting the dog cloning business.

RNL said the puppies were confirmed as clones through DNA tests run by Lee's own team. SNU's forensic lab will test the puppies sometime next week to verify whether they are clones.

They were created using a method called somatic cell nuclear transfer. Genetic material from the dog's ear was transferred to eggs with removed nuclei, which were then inserted into the uterus of surrogate dogs.

The Booger puppies represent a significant advancement in the technology for cloning dogs, deemed by scientists as the most difficult of animals to reproduce as genetic copies, RNL officials said.

The SNU scientists needed to work for nearly three years, seven days a week, and used 1,095 eggs from 123 dogs before finally succeeding with the birth of Snuppy in 2005.

This time around, Lee's team implanted 78 eggs in five surrogate mothers, resulting in five pregnancies in two of the dogs.

Both of the surrogate mothers were three-year-old mixed breeds and the pregnancies lasted for 70 days, according to RNL chief executive Ra Jeong-chan.

``Normally, pregnancies in dogs last for 63 days and achieving birth in just an extra week marks a significant advancement in the efficiency of cloning technology,'' said Ra in a news conference at the SNU Tuesday.

``We are using fewer eggs and fewer surrogate mothers, which will help ease the debate over the welfare of the dogs involved in cloning,'' he said.

The birth of the Booger clones marks RNL's first attempt to kick-start a global pet cloning industry. The company will gather applicants from dog owners at its Korean headquarters and U.S. office (www.rnlbiostar.com) in Maryland.

Lee was among a team of SNU scientists, then led by disgraced gene scientist Hwang Woo-suk, who created the world's first cloned dog, an Afghan hound named Snuppy, in 2005.

After Hwang was fired by SNU in 2006 in the fallout of his fraudulent studies on cloned human stem cells, Lee had been leading his own team that continued to push forward the technologies for animal cloning, often in collaboration with RNL.

RNL received the orders to clone Booger by the late dog's American owner Bernann McKinney.

Booger came to McKinney's rescue when she was savaged by another dog, which bit off her left hand and three fingers on the right and severely injured her stomach. The dog was McKinney's faithful companion for 11 years, helping her through her disability, before dying in 2006.

McKinney was to pay $150,000 for a clone of Booger, although RNL later offered her a discount and will be paying $50,000. Now, she looks to be getting three for the price of one, with the remaining two puppies staying at Lee's lab for research purposes.

McKinney named the five puppies Booger McKinney, Booger Ra, Booger Lee, Booger Hong, named after the Hong Jin-han, RNL's representative in the U.S., and Booger Park, after researcher Park Jung-eun on Lee's team.

She will be able to bring home the puppies sometime in September after scientists closely monitor the animals' health, RNL said.

The brilliance of Lee and his colleagues have allowed RNL to land lucrative projects, including the cloning of seven Labrador retrievers, produced from a top drug-sniffing dog named Chase, at the request of the Korea Customs Service in April.

Lee's team was also behind the cloning of Marine, a retriever trained to recognize the scent of chemicals found in cancer cells, after receiving an order from the dog's Japanese owners.

With the cloning of Booger, Lee now finds himself in an awkward showdown with ex-partner Hwang, now hired by California-based BioArts International, the world's only other company looking to make a business out of cloning dogs.

Since The Korea Times first reported the Booger project in February, RNL has been entangled in a patent dispute with BioArts over cloning rights.

The Korean company claims it owns worldwide exclusive rights for dog cloning, granted by SNU that holds the patent rights for the technologies developed for the Snuppy project.

BioArts, on the other hand, claims it obtained exclusive licenses for the cloning of mammals using somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) technology from Start Licensing, a Texas-based firm holding the patent rights for the technologies developed at the Roslin Institute for the cloning of Dolly the sheep.

Start Licensing has recently sent a cease and desist letter to RNL, which is considered a preliminary step before legal action. RNL chief executive Ra Jeong-chan recently told The Korea Times that his company is preparing a lawsuit against BioArts' Korean subcontractors, the Sooam BioTech Research Center, led by Hwang.

BioArts recently held an online auction for its dog cloning services and announced a winner in a German shepherd named Trakr, who along with his master, a retired Canadian police officer, were among the first search and rescue teams to arrive at the World Trade Center during the 9.11 incident.

Hwang and his colleagues at the Sooam are expected receive the cells of Trakr soon at their lab in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.

thkim@koreatimes.co.kr