Attack of the Clone (Doggies)

Darth Smiley · Post by **Darth Smiley** » 2008-04-25 10:44am

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... lones.html

National Geographic wrote: April 24, 2008—The Korean Customs Service today unveiled seven golden Labrador retrievers cloned from a skilled drug-sniffing canine in active service—a test to see if duplicates could reduce the difficulty and expense of finding dogs qualified to detect drugs and explosives, officials say.

Seen here at their training facility near Incheon International Airport west of Seoul, the pups were born five to six months ago.

The dogs all currently share the same name: "Toppy"—a portmanteau of the words "tomorrow" and "puppy."

In February all seven passed a behavior test to check if they are qualified to work as sniffing dogs. Only 10 to 15 percent of naturally born dogs pass the test.

If the cloned dogs succeed in other tests for physical strength, concentration, and sniffing ability, they will be put to work by July 2009 at airports and harbors across South Korea, according to the training center.

Normally, only about three out every ten naturally born dogs the center trains—at a cost of about $40,140 each—ends up qualifying for the job.

The cloning was conducted by the team at Seoul National University that in 2005 successfully created the first known dog clone, an Afghan hound named Snuppy.

The team's leader, Lee Byeong-chun, was a key aide to disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk. Hwang's purported breakthroughs in stem cell research were revealed as false, but independent tests proved the team's dog cloning was genuine.

Lee said it cost approximately $100,000 to $150,000 to clone each of the seven Labradors.

The seven are the first cloned drug-sniffing dogs, though his team has cloned 13 other dogs and five wolves, he added.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Any comments?

Zixinus · Post by **Zixinus** » 2008-04-25 11:20am

First case of practical use of cloning maybe?

PeZook · Post by **PeZook** » 2008-04-25 12:48pm

Hmmm...I haven't been following the field very closely. Don't clones have severe health problems, or have these issues been solved?

Because if so, then it's a rather large moneysaver right there.

The best thing is that this isn't much different from what we've been doing for thousands of years (breeding dogs for specific tasks), only faster and more precise.

I wonder when the time will come when we'll be able to design organisms with CAD and bring them to life

Tolya · Post by **Tolya** » 2008-04-25 01:07pm

PeZook wrote:Hmmm...I haven't been following the field very closely. Don't clones have severe health problems, or have these issues been solved?

They found a solution already. You just have to put an isalamiri in the vicinity of the spaarti cylinder and presto!

Darmalus · Post by **Darmalus** » 2008-04-25 01:11pm

Tolya wrote:
PeZook wrote:Hmmm...I haven't been following the field very closely. Don't clones have severe health problems, or have these issues been solved?
They found a solution already. You just have to put an isalamiri in the vicinity of the spaarti cylinder and presto!

...what? Is that biology jargon or a joke that flew over my head?

Tolya · Post by **Tolya** » 2008-04-25 01:21pm

Darmalus wrote:
Tolya wrote:
PeZook wrote:Hmmm...I haven't been following the field very closely. Don't clones have severe health problems, or have these issues been solved?
They found a solution already. You just have to put an isalamiri in the vicinity of the spaarti cylinder and presto!
...what? Is that biology jargon or a joke that flew over my head?

Lol. Nope, you won't hear Aany professional biology stuff from me. That's a Star Wars, Force related joke. I could explain, but you're better off reading the books by Timothy Zahn(Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command).

PeZook · Post by **PeZook** » 2008-04-26 02:20am

Hmm...you know, after a while, i don't think it's such a cost saver.

I mean, it costs 40k to train each of the ten dogs, out of which three end up suitable for the job.

So that's a cost-per-dog-in-service of 133 thousand.

Cloning those dogs costs 150k each, which means the clones are actually more expensive than breeded dogs.

Unless the costs will go down with mass-production, of course

loomer · Post by **loomer** » 2008-04-26 03:59am

Every time we do something again, we have a chance to spot a way to cut costs or increase efficiency. The first clocks were gigantic, now they can make gear based clocks smaller than a 5 cent piece.

The same theory applies to cloning, unless there are basic aspects we simply cannot solve.

Companion Cube · Post by **Companion Cube** » 2008-04-26 05:07am

PeZook wrote:
Unless the costs will go down with mass-production, of course

The first two hundred thousand units are ready, with another million well on the way!

Erik von Nein · Post by **Erik von Nein** » 2008-04-26 11:44pm

PeZook wrote:Hmmm...I haven't been following the field very closely. Don't clones have severe health problems, or have these issues been solved?

Because if so, then it's a rather large moneysaver right there.

Yes, there were issues, mostly due to chromosomes deteriorating from too many copies being made (telomeres shrinking). It was solved by capping the chromosomes of the clone-to-be.

Zor · Post by **Zor** » 2008-04-27 02:52am

Cool. Labs are on my list of dogs i really like (largely due to some Lab Loving Reletives), very nice and playful, if not the sharpest sword in the armory.

Zor

FA Xerrik · Post by **FA Xerrik** » 2008-04-27 02:27pm

Sort of reminds me of the neodogs from Starship Troopers for some reason. Sort of creepy, but interesting too. Hopefully they work up a way to make it more cost-efficient, since as PeZook noted it seems not that even if they're guaranteed to be effective or whatever they're still more expensive than training all the ones who will fail anyways.

Darth Smiley · Post by **Darth Smiley** » 2008-04-28 09:14pm

You know, the first thing I thought upon seeing "South Korea" and "Clones" in the same article was "Zergling Rush!".

Post by **Broomstick** » 2008-04-29 09:30am

PeZook wrote:Hmm...you know, after a while, i don't think it's such a cost saver.

I mean, it costs 40k to train each of the ten dogs, out of which three end up suitable for the job.

I think they're hoping that ALL of the ten clones will work out, not just 30%.

If it costs 40k to train 10 dogs and only 3 make the cut you have just spent $400k for three usable dogs - or about $133k per usable dog.

The clones are between $100-150k to produce. Let's for the sake of argument (and assuming more practice will perfect the process, lowering costs) go with $100k per clone. IF they all work out, that's about $140k per usable dog - not a huge price difference. AND you're getting a more consistent result. Arguably, getting a known quantity is worth that extra $7k. Continued use of the process will probably result in lower costs, which means in 10 years or so the clones may be cheaper when considering overall costs of producing a sniffer dog.