RNL Bio, a South Korean biotech company, will offer a chance to clone your dog, at a price that can be up to $148,000 for one puppy. RNL Bio is affiliated with Seoul National University (SNU), the lab that produced the world's first cloned dog. They expect to deliver a puppy in about a year to a U.S. woman in her 50’s who saved DNA material from her beloved Pit Bull. Although their first cloned puppy, Snuppy an Afghan Hound, was a verified success, and was Time Magazine’s “most amazing invention of 2005,” the SNU lab has been implicated in a criminal case for deliberately fabricating data in studies on human embryonic stem cell research. RNL expects it can clone about 30 pet dogs a year at present and increase that number to about 200 by 2010, with costs going down as the cloning technology increases in efficiency. Lee Byeong-chun, the Seoul National University professor who has led previous canine cloning projects, said of the partnership: "Within one or two years, we will see costs drop to a reasonable level." Hm, from $148,000 to “reasonable”? More information
Personally, I think I am unique and it would be impossible to clone me. It's already been proved that a cloned animal does not share the same personality as it's "parent" and it's my sweet, lovable nature that makes me special in the first place!
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