South Korean Scientists Create World's First Cloned Dog

SEOUL, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Man can now reproduce his best friend -- South Korean scientists announced on Wednesday they had created the world's first cloned dog.

Woo-Suk Hwang and his team of researchers at Seoul National University made world headlines earlier this year when they created stem cells with a patient's specific genetic material, derived through cloned embryos.

Now they have cemented their place as leaders in the field by creating Snuppy, the first dog cloned from adult cells by somatic nuclear cell transfer. This is the same technique used to create Dolly, the world's first cloned mammal, and other animals.

Hwang said the breakthrough in cloning dogs may advance work on combating diseases by therapeutic cloning with stem cells.

"Our research goal is to produce cloned dogs for (studying) the disease models, not only for humans, but also for animals," Hwang told a press conference.

Snuppy, short for for Seoul National University puppy, where Hwang's lab is located, is a male born by caesarean section weighing 530 grams (19 ounces) on April 24 after a normal, full-term pregnancy...