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A Korean cloning research team headed by Dr. Hwang Woo-suk, the disgraced former national scientist, will clone an American "hero" dog that helped rescue victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York.
BioArts International, a California-based bioengineering company, said Tuesday that it has selected Trakr as the winner of its "Best Friends Again" contest to find the world's most "clone-worthy" dog and will arrange for him to be cloned for free.
A German shepherd, Trakr played a big role in locating the last human survivor of the attacks under 10 m of debris at Ground Zero. Now aged 15, the dog can no longer use his back legs due to a degenerative neurological disorder that is linked to exposure to toxic smoke at the site, claims his handler James Symington, a policeman who submitted Trakr's story to the contest.
BioArts says that within 30 days it will send a sample of Trakr's somatic cell genes to Hwang's team at the lab of its Korean partner, Sooam Biotech Research Foundation. A Sooam researcher said they expect the cloned dog to be born by November.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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