RNL Bio successfully cloned dogs using fat derived stem cells for the first time in the world

Jan. 29, 2009 - PRLog -- RNL Bio Co., Ltd, a leading biopharmaceutical company specialized in adult stem cell based therapeutics, announced today that two puppies were cloned using adipose tissue derived stem cells from a Beagle donor for the first time in the world.
In the past, all dog cloning has been done by means of somatic cells but this is the world first dog cloning using fat stem cells. With this success, Korea boasts of its world’s best stem cell processing technology and unchallenged dog cloning technology.
Researchers at RNL Bio extracted fat tissue from a Beagle dog on October 29th 2008. Stem cells were subsequently isolated and expanded from the fat tissue. Eighty four cloned embryos were transplanted in five surrogate mother dogs on November 10th 2008. After two months’ gestation, two clones were born from one of those surrogate mothers. RNL Bio gave names those puppies as Magic and Stem.
This breakthrough was possible by combining of dog cloning technology from Seoul National University and stem cell. There have been a few instances for stem cell based cloning of mice, pigs or mammals other than dogs. The problem was lower efficiency of cloning using stem cells than that of somatic cells. RNL Bio overcame this drawback with the help of its long developed stem cell technology. RNL Bio achieved similar cloning efficiency with stem cells to that of conventional method.
As adipose derived stem cells have great potential for therapeutics to treat Alzheimer, diabetes, osteoarthritis and many other degenerative and obstinate diseases, demand for preservation or banking of stem cells are rapidly growing. Stem cell banking has great business potential because it can be used not only for therapeutics to treat diseases but future cloning intention. RNL Bio operates stem cell banks for human individuals as well as dogs.
Dr. Jeong Chan Ra, CEO of RNL Bio said ‘this achievement means a lot in that we diversify our stem cell technologies to many purposes and created unique and lucrative business area. Based on our development, I am convinced we can make RNL Bio one of the world best biotech companies in the near future.”

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RNL is a premier biotech company in Korea focused on stem cell therapeutics. Headquartered in Seoul with a recently opened state-of-the-art GMP facility, RNL is a publicly traded company on the Korean Stock Exchange (Code 003190)