South Korea cloned pigs for organ transplantation

On April 22, Korean scientists announced that they cloned a pig to get transgenic transplanted organs for humans.

Lead researcher Lim Gio-bin said that the male boar named Xeno was born on April 3. Scientists conducted genetic modification to Xeno no longer the "alpha-gal" gene triggered a rejection of the transplant.

This Korean-funded research group, consisting of scientists from four universities and two research institutes, used stem cells of nearly 100 smaller pigs than normal to clone four, but only Xeno survived. Currently this group is continuing to duplicate a female pig.

According to Lim Gio-Bin, his team has adopted a technology similar to that used by US scientists in 2002 to clone asexual pigs, which removes a copy of the gene that causes digging. waste.

A body receives two copies of a gene, including a copy of the mother and a copy of the father. Scientists have tried to duplicate pigs without both copies, but so far no results have been obtained.

Mr. Lim Gio-bin affirmed that he and his successful partners cloned Xeno to bring Korea to the second place in the world after the US on cloning pigs. He argued that his group's method of cloning was superior to that of American scientists, and that this result would help them accumulate knowledge to duplicate high-quality small pigs.

He also said he and his colleagues will conduct trials to transplant this organ for humans in 2012 and may begin to provide this service in 2017./.