 Bernann McKinney holds one of cloned puppies at a Seoul National University lab , Tuesday. / Yonhap |
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
A soft-spoken California resident who turns 58 Wednesday has gotten a most unique birthday present: the world's first cloned pet dog.
Bernann McKinney arrived in Seoul from Los Angeles late Sunday, with the surgical pins in her left arm setting off the metal detectors in Los Angeles International Airport. She also had an unfortunate encounter with an elevator door at Incheon International Airport, leaving her with a nasty limp on her right foot.
Nonetheless, she couldn't be happier.
``I think it's fractured," she said about her injured foot, laughing. ``But that wasn't going to stop me from seeing my babies."
McKinney was indeed an emotional mother when she hugged the five cloned puppies of her late pitbull Booger for the first time at a Seoul National University lab Tuesday. She said she was impressed over the resemblance of the puppies to Booger.
Ra Jeong-chan, CEO of the Korean biotech firm RNL Bio that pushed the project, beamed behind her.
``Look, he has Booger's white chest and white dots on his feet," McKinney said, holding up one of the five puppies cuddled beside one of their two surrogate mothers.
The puppies were cloned by a team led by Dr. Lee Byeong-chun, but part of the credit must go to McKinney. She persevered until she connected with the star gene scientist Lee, who is considered the world's top authority on dog cloning.
McKinney persuaded Lee into cloning Booger after first contacting him earlier this year. Booger came to McKinney's rescue when she was attacked by another dog, which bit off her left hand and three fingers on her right while severely injuring her stomach. It took several years for doctors to reconstruct her hands, and in that difficult time, Booger was a loyal and resourceful companion.
``I never trained him specifically as a service dog, but Booger could unlock the doorknob with his teeth, help pull my trousers off, pick socks from laundry, and even learned to dial 911," McKinney said.
After living with McKinney for 11 years, Booger died in 2006.
McKinney first hired Genetics Savings & Clone, a U.S. company that promised to turn pet cloning into a commercial enterprise. The firm closed in 2006, however, after failing to produce a single cloned canine. Customers transferred their pets' genetic material for storage to ViaGen, a Texas-based gene bank.
When Lee and RNL, the Korean company which had been collaborating with Seoul National University scientists on biomedical projects, approached ViaGen in March for Booger's cell samples, the U.S. company strongly resisted.
``We thought the whole thing might be over, but Bernann was determined and she pleaded, threatened, hired both a lawyer and private detective, and did whatever she could to pressure ViaGen to give up the cells," Ra told The Korea Times.
Getting Booger's cells was the most difficult part of the cloning process, he said.
``We were packed and ready to fly back to Seoul when ViaGen, finally giving in, suddenly called and told us to take the cells by 4 p.m. Friday or never.
``I was with Lee at the Los Angeles airport and Dr. Hong Jin-han, who works for our U.S. branch, brought the cells in a nitrogen tank just three hours before our flight."
RNL is now in a patent dispute with the San Francisco-based BioArts, with both companies claiming exclusive rights for dog cloning.
BioArts is a reincarnation of none other than Genetics Savings & Clone, led by the same chief executive, Lou Hawthorne, and backed by billionaire John Sperling, who also controlled GSC and ViaGen.
McKinney can take her five cloned puppies to her California home next month. She plans to establish a dog training center in honor of her late pitbull, and is also talking with a publishing company on writing a book.
McKinney is also working on a movie script and pitching her story to Hollywood studios.
thkim@koreatimes.co.kr
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