p2pnet news | Products:- The say man’s best friend is his dog and a California company hopes to capitalise on that belief through a series of online auctions —-

—- offering five dog clones at a starting price of $100,000 each.

Called BioArts International, the canine manufacturing company claims the technology is ready, calling its project Best Friends Again.

It’s scheduled the web auctions for June 18, says the New York Times, going on company CEO Lou Hawthorne (right) is using Mira, Sarang and Chin-Gu, three clones of a dog named Missy, as examples.

“BioArts says it has licensed patents issued in the 1990s after researchers in Scotland cloned Dolly the sheep,” says the story, going on:

“BioArts also arranged a partnership with the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in South Korea” and that one of the principal scientists there is Hwang Woo Suk, “who in 2005 was involved in cloning a male Afghan hound named Snuppy for Seoul National University puppy.”

If the name rings a bell, it may be because you’ve read about Hwang.

“Until November 2005, he was considered one of the pioneering experts in the field of stem cell research, best known for two articles published in the journal Science in 2004 and 2005 where he fraudulently reported to have succeeded in creating human embryonic stem cells by cloning,” says the Wikipedia. “Both papers were later editorially retracted after they were found to contain a large amount of fabricated data. He has admitted to various lies and frauds.”

Hawthorne admits the association with Hwang is “controversial,” but, according to the NYT, defends him saying, “One of the contradictions of Dr. Hwang is that he made mistakes on his human stem-cell research, and he’s the first to admit that.”

Hawthorne was also CEO Genetic Savings & Clone, “which did extensive research on cloning dogs but concentrated on the commercial potential of cloning customers’ cats, something it offered to do for $50,000 apiece,” says the story, adding:

“But he said Genetic Savings shut down in 2006 after giving ’some pricey refunds’ to customers who had paid to have their cats cloned.

The technology, “was not refined,” says Hawthorne, “and rather than keep an operation that was burning through several million a year, keep that going, we decided, shut that down, focus on technology and launch a new company when the time seemed right.”

“His new company, BioArts, began work last fall to clone Missy, he said, who was three-quarters border collie and one-quarter husky,” says the New York Times.

As far as the online auctions go, although $100K will be the starting price, it could drop.

And BioArts promised not to spend the money, “unless and until we deliver a cloned dog that they sign off on,” and that the company would guarantee the resemblance between the customer’s dog and the clone,” it says.

“He also said that BioArts would guarantee the cloned dog’s health for a year, and that a veterinarian would examine and approve the dog before it was delivered to its new owners.”

But, “If anyone thinks they’re going to get Fluffy back,” the story has Dr Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer of a biotech company, saying, but tacititly admitting cloning is possible, “they’re gravely mistaken.”

A cloned dog is, “likely to be a totally unknown dog, just as if you went to the pound and adopted another, unknown animal.”

Hawthorne helped found Genetic Savings & Clone in 1999, says coasttocoast.com, going on:

“Prior to launching the Missy-plicity project in July 1997, Hawthorne coordinated large-scale technology and media projects both independently and for various Fortune 500 clients. He has also worked professionally as a media producer focusing on video, software, CD-ROMs and websites.

“Hawthorne received a BA in English Literature from Princeton University in 1983. For six years he was trained closely with top scientists in various disciplines of life sciences. Currently, he works closely with Dr. John Sperling, Genetic Savings and Clone’s primary investor and founder of Apollo Group, a $15B company frequently identified as one of the best managed companies in the world.”

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New York Times - Biotech Company to Auction Chances to Clone a Dog, May 21, 2008

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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 5:24 am and is filed under Off Topic, Product News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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