Chinese Biotech Company Successfully Clones Beloved Deceased Cat

• 01

  How does the process of cloning even work?

  
  via Interesting Engineering

  Lai Liangxue, the company's chief scientist and a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the Global Times, "Cloning a cat or dog requires an embryo to be cultivated from the cell of the animal, before being implanted into the surrogate mother's uterus, The process - from cell extraction to birth - takes at least two months."

  
  

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• 02

  Pictured here is the original Garlic, who passed due to a urinary tract infection,

  
  via Global Times / Courtesy of Sinogene

  Heartbroken by the loss of her cat, Garlic's owner, Huang Yu, told Global Times, "My cat died of urinary tract disease. I decided to clone him because he was so special and unforgettable."

• 03

  And on July 21, at the Sinogene Biotechnology Company in Beijing, cloned Garlic was born.

  
  via Global Times / Courtesy of Sinogene

  Lai says that even though cloned Garlic appears identical to the real Garlic, they have different temperaments and personalities. And also mentioned that a cloned cat's life expectancy is the same as any other cat. 

  
  

• 04

  They are also considering the use artificial intelligence in order for the cloned animal to share the same memories as the original!

  
  via Global Times / Courtesy of Sinogene

  Zhao Jianping, Sinogene deputy general manager, said at the conference, "To make the cloned animal share the same memories with the original, the company is considering the use of artificial intelligence or man-machine interface technology to store them or even pass the memories to cloned animals."

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• 05

  The Beijing-based company is hoping to use this new technology on endangered animals.

  
  via Global Times / Courtesy of Sinogene

  According to Lai, "cloning an endangered animal would require experiments on interspecies cloning, but no scientist has so far successfully cloned a cross species animal due to technological barriers. It's still unlikely a rabbit can give birth to a pig, for example."

• 06
  via ODN

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