On Wednesday, Scientists from Seoul National University in South Korea announced that they have created a glowing dog while utilizing a cloning technique designed to find cures for diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Pictured about is the team's genetically modified female beagle, Tegon, which was born in 2009 and was found to glow in a fluorescent green color while under ultraviolet light.
After two years of testing, the research team has found that the glowing ability is triggered by a doxycycline antibiotic and can be turned on or off by adding or removing certain drugs to the dog's food.
"The creation of Tegon opens new horizons since the gene injected to make the dog glow can be substituted with genes that trigger fatal human diseases," explained lead researcher Lee Byeong-chun. He went on to state that humans and dogs have 268 common diseases, and that creating dogs with artificial symptoms could help in the treatment of these deadly diseases that affect humans.
The scientists in the project created Tegon utilizing the same somatic cell nuclear transfer technology that they used in creating the world's first cloned dog, Snuppy back in 2005. Although the researchers are only hoping to assist in treating or curing lethal human diseases, cloning itself is already a controversial topic. We're guessing PETA might not be too happy about creating dogs with Alzheimer's or Parkinson's diseases.
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