Send in the Clones

Snuppy (pictured above with Dr. Hwang Woo-Suk) is the first cloned dog created at Seoul National University (SNU) in South Korea. The name "Snuppy" is combination of "SNU" and "puppy."

In late 2005, Hwang Woo-Suk was found to have falsified evidence in some of his stem cell research publications. This caused some to question the authenticity of his other experiments, including Snuppy. Upon further investigation, it was confirmed that Snuppy was a true clone of a DNA donor dog named Tei.

Cumulina (a mouse, pictured above at her first birthday party with Dr. Yanagimachi) was the first animal cloned from adult cells that survived to adulthood (Dec. 1997--May 2003). She was cloned by the Yanagimachi research group, 'Team Yana', at the University of Hawaii. Cumulina was named after the cumulus cells that surround the developing ovarian follicle in mice. Clones are produced by introducing nuclei from these cumulus cells into egg cells devoid of their original nuclei.

Animal clones-- scientific curiousities? Proof of principle for future human clones? What are your thoughts?