The World's First Transgenic, 'Handmade' Cloned Sheep is Alive and Well in China
This is Not Peng Peng But's it's adorable, no? Donald Macleod via Wikimedia The world's first transgenic sheep produced via a simplified cloning technique, known as handmade cloning (seriously), is here. Peng Peng, named for the two cloner sheep who happened to have identical names, was successfully delivered back on March 26 and is developing so well that researchers have deemed him ready for the spotlight. Peng Peng was more than two years in the making. Chinese researchers BGI Ark Biotechnology working with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shihezi University were working in some adverse conditions in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, where climate and laboratory conditions were not ideal for conventional cloning. So they opted for a simplified method of cloning, known as handmade cloning (or HMC), that requires fewer sophisticated lab implements and simplified procedures. The donor cells were collected from Chinese Merino sheep back in 2009, and a...