Cloning

South Korean scientists say they have made four beagles that glow red using cloning techniques. That could possibly help develop cures for human diseases. The four dogs are all named Ruppy. The name is a combination of the words ruby and puppy. The dogs look like typical beagles by daylight. The dogs glow red under ultraviolet light. The dogs' nails and abdomens have thin skins and look red. You can see it with your eyes. A Seoul National University professor is Lee Byeong-chun. He is head of the research team. The team called them the world's first transgenic dogs carrying fluorescent genes. This an achievement that goes beyond just the glowing discovery. The important part was that they put genes into the dogs. Scientists in the U.S., Japan and in Europe previously have cloned fluorescent mice and pigs. This would be the first time dogs with modified genes have been cloned successfully. That's what Lee said. He said his team took skin cells from a beagle. The team inserted fluorescent genes into them and put them into eggs. Six female beagles were born in December 2007 through a cloning with a gene that produces a red fluorescent light. Two died but the four others survived. This is very interesting.