Seattle Tech Talk Blog

We usually don’t, never, or usually never plan to copy a press article and paste, but this is too good to put in other words.

“South Korean scientists clone cat that glows red

Cloning is a topic of much debate that has uses for good and uses that aren?t so good. Being able to clone animals with specific disease states could make it easier for researchers to tackle genetic diseases that affect animals and humans alike.In 2005 the infamous Hwang Woo Suk, South Korean cloning scientist, admitted to falsifying stem cell cloning research. Even when it was later found that Suk had actually made a possibly larger breakthrough than the faked research suggested, the damage was already done and Suk was fired and faces legal ramifications for his falsified work.

Another group of South Korean scientists has cloned cats with a florescent protein gene that makes them glow red in ultra violet light. Similar techniques have been used in everything from roundworms to goldfish to pigs. The procedure used in the cloning process is hoped to be able to help develop treatments for genetic diseases.

The lead scientist on the project, Kong Il-keun from the Gyeongsang National University was able to produce a trio of cats with the altered glowing gene. The cats were born in January and February, two grew to adult and one cat was still born.

The South Korean Ministry of Science and Technology said in a statement, ?It marked the first time in the world that cats with [altered fluorescence protein genes] RFP genes have been cloned.?

Cat glowing

This is truly an amazing thing. We can alter genetics and tackle what we want in a certain specie, but this is altering with nature. Anyone know that fact that they also cloned rats, who luminated green.