GEO Amazing and Interesting

South Korean scientists create glowing dog

SEOUL: South Korean scientists said they have created a glowing dog using a cloning technique that could help find cures for human diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. A research team from Seoul National University (SNU) said the genetically modified female beagle, named Tegon and born in 2009, has been found to glow fluorescent green under ultraviolet light if given a doxycycline antibiotic, the report said. The researchers, who completed a two-year test, said the ability to glow can be turned on or off by adding a drug 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," the news agency quoted lead researcher Lee Byeong-chun as saying. He said the dog was created using the somatic cell nuclear transfer technology that the university team used to make the world's first cloned dog, Snuppy, in 2005. The scientist said that because there are 268 illnesses that humans and dogs have in common, creating dogs that artificially show such symptoms could aid treatment methods for diseases that afflict humans.