1. Texas A&M Researchers Successfully Clone A Horse
In what is believed to be the first success of its kind in North America, researchers at the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at Texas A&M have successfully cloned a horse. The privately owned colt named Paris Texas was cloned from the adult skin cells biopsied from its genetic donor by French collaborating partner, Cryozootech, a company dedicated to preserving the genes of exceptional horses for their use in producing cloned offspring. The bay colored-foal was born on March 13, making Texas A&M the first academic institution in the world to have cloned six different species. Previously, veterinary researchers have cloned cattle, goats, pigs, a deer and a cat. "The great thing is that Paris Texas is healthy; this is certainly the goal of our work," said Dr. Katrin Hinrichs, lead scientist on the project. Hinrichs is a veterinarian and professor and heads Texas A&M's Equine Embryo Laboratory. Hinrichs and Dr. Young Ho Choi, an associate research scientist in the Equine Embryo Lab, worked on this project with Eric Palmer, chairman of Cryozootech. Palmer collected the cells from a valuable performance horse in Europe, cultured the cells, froze them, and sent them to Hinrichs' laboratory. For more, go to: http://www.cvm.tamu.edu/news/breakingnews/breaking.shtml
