Your Korean cloning news roundup

Posted By Joshua Keating Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - 3:24 PM Share

 Three years after the country's preeminent scientist was caught falsifying data about the cloning of human stem cells, South Korea has decided to once again allow stem cell research. Dr. Hwang Woo-suk's stem cell research license was revolked in 2006 after he published fake data on his cloning research. A new team has now successfully applied for a license to conduct research on cloning stem cells.

Since his fall from grace, Hwang has found a second career in cloning dogs for bereaved pet owners (his breakthroughs on dog cloning (such as the guy in the picture) were the real thing) as James Card reported for FP in February.

This brings us to today's other big South Korean cloning story. One of Hwangs former assistants announced today that he had successfully cloned dogs that glow in the dark. In addition to the novelty, this is apparently an important medical breakthrough:

The glowing dogs show that it is possible to successfully insert genes with a specific trait, which could lead to implanting other, non-fluorescent genes that could help treat specific diseases, Lee said.

Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

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