Strange

Would you want a puppy that glows in the dark?

by Amy Judd | April 28, 2009 at 06:01 pm

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Scientists in South Korea have created four Beagle puppies that glow in the dark. They glow a red colour that scientists say could help find cures for human diseases as genes have been planted in to the dogs, and the same could be done for humans.

The dogs look normal in daylight, but in ultraviolet light, they glow red.

Seoul National University professor Lee Byeong-chun, head of the research team, called them the world's first transgenic dogs carrying fluorescent genes, an achievement that goes beyond just the glowing novelty.

"What's significant in this work is not the dogs expressing red colors but that we planted genes into them," Lee told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

This has been done in mice and pigs before, but not dogs. This is the first time that dogs with modified genes have been cloned successfully.
The scientists took cells from a Beagle, put flourescent genes into the cells and then placed them into eggs before implanting them into the womb of a surrogate mother.
This means that there is the possibility to insert genes with a specific trait in them, meaning this process could be used to treat diseases.
Testing is underway for human disease related genes.

"We can appraise this is a step forward" toward finding cures for human diseases, said veterinary professor Kong Il-keun at South Korea's Gyeongsang National University. "What is important now is on what specific diseases (Lee's team) will focus on."

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Tomitheos

at 18:32 on April 28th, 2009

thanks for this updated info amyjudd, I don't think we should be modifying sentient beings for science, we should assert certain animal ethics in our society and not try to justify these procedures for the progress of humanity when we all know that there will be a market and monetary gain at the end of it all

and having a designer pet almost defeats the definition of animal adoption..