韓國成功克隆“嗅癌犬”
A South Korean biotech company on Monday unveiled four Labrador retriever puppies it said were cloned from a Japanese dog skilled at sniffing out patients with cancer.
RNL Bio, affiliated with the stem cell lab of Seoul National University, said the puppies were born three weeks ago and would be sent to Japan in September for training.
The puppies are clones of a six-and-a-half-year-old black Labrador retriever named Marine, which is thought to have a well-honed sense for detecting cancer, RNL Bio said.
The cloning, requested by the Japanese stemcell company Seems, was conducted by a team led by Seoul National University professor Lee Byeong-Chun, it said.
"Marine has excellent characteristics for cancer sniffing and I hope the cloned dogs have the same characteristics," said Lee, who previously headed world's first dog cloning project.
Seems wanted to clone the dogs because Marine could not give birth to siblings following an operation to have her womb removed, it said.
"Thanks to the cloning technology, it (Marine) has been able to preserve its own genes," said a statement on RNL Bio's website.
Researchers in several countries are investigating whether dogs have the ability to detect lung, breast, prostate and skin cancer at an early and treatable stage.
They believe cancer cells create a scent not present in healthy cells, which can theoretically be picked up by dogs in breath or urine samples.
韓國一家生物科技公司於本週一宣佈，他們以日本一隻拉布拉多嗅癌犬為原型，成功克隆出四隻嗅癌獵犬。
首爾國立大學幹細胞實驗室附屬RNL生物科技公司説，這幾隻嗅癌犬於三周前出生，並將於九月被送往日本接受訓練。
據該公司介紹，接受克隆的是一隻六歲半的黑色拉布拉多獵犬“馬琳”，這隻獵犬被認為具有很強的癌症嗅探能力。
據介紹，嗅癌犬克隆項目是應日本西姆斯干細胞公司的要求，由首爾國立大學的李秉春教授領導的科研小組負責開展的。
曾負責世界首個克隆犬項目的李秉春教授説：“馬琳擁有超凡的癌症嗅探能力，希望被克隆出的狗也具備這種能力。”
西姆斯公司希望克隆嗅癌犬，是因為馬琳的子宮被摘除，無法生育後代。
RNL生物科技公司在其網站上發表的一份聲明中稱：“幸虧有克隆技術，馬琳的基因才能得以延續。”
目前，有幾個國家的科研人員正在研究狗是否具有嗅探早期和可醫治期的肺癌、乳腺癌、前列腺癌和皮膚癌的能力。
研究人員認為，癌細胞會散發出一種健康細胞所沒有的氣味，所以從理論上説，狗可以從人的呼吸或尿樣中嗅出這種氣味
