First Commercially Cloned Dog Delivered to Florida Family

(BUSINESS WIRE)--BioArts International announced today that they have delivered the world’s first commercially cloned dog, a 10-week old Labrador named Lancey, to Florida residents Edgar and Nina Otto.

“We can’t believe this day is finally here,” said Nina Otto, “We are so happy to have little Lancey in our family. His predecessor was a very special dog. We are thrilled beyond words!”

Lancey was hand delivered to the Ottos on Monday, January 26th by BioArts Chairman Lou Hawthorne. “This is a very special milestone for our company – and great fun for me too,” said Hawthorne, who delivered Lancey personally.

The Ottos were one of five families to bid and win an auction held by BioArts International in July for a chance to clone their family dog. Lancey’s genetic donor, Sir Lancelot, died in January, 2008, and the Ottos had his DNA stored. By October, samples from the original dog were on their way to the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in Seoul, South Korea, which provides cloning services to BioArts.

Lancey was born on November 18th, 2008, and brought to the US on January 25th, 2009 after being weaned from his surrogate mother.

The Ottos, longtime residents of Boca Raton, have had many beloved dogs over the years, but Lancey’s genetic donor was unique. “Sir Lancelot was the most human of any dog we’ve ever had,” said Otto, “He was a prince among dogs.”

Said Hawthorne, “One minute with Lancey and you know he’s special. He’s both extremely aware and very sweet. The Ottos are the first of six current clients to receive their clone. The next 6 months will be very exciting both for our clients and our staff.”

Additional information about the Best Friends Again program and dog cloning is available at www.bestfriendsagain.com. More information about BioArts is available at www.bioarts.com.

BioArts International is a biotech company focused on unique, untapped markets in the global companion animal, stem cell and human genomics industries. The Best Friends Again program is a collaboration between BioArts and the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in South Korea, home to the best and most experienced dog cloning team in the world.

BioArts has been granted the sole, worldwide license for the cloning of dogs, cats and endangered species. The license was granted by Start Licensing, Inc. and applies to the somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) cloning patents developed at the Roslin Institute for the cloning of Dolly the sheep.

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Study Finds Fat Stem Cells Effective in Treating Pets' Elbow Arthritis

RJ Note: Now this is exciting! Hey doc, I've got this pain in my neck......

24-7 -- Vet-Stem, the San Diego-based company using fat-derived stem cell therapy in veterinary medicine, recently had its second study with positive findings published. The multi-center clinical trial, published in Veterinary Therapeutics Fall 2008, revealed that dogs treated with stem cell therapy showed statistically significant improvement in lameness, pain and range of motion for elbow injuries.

"This study reinforces the importance of our work--we are making tomorrow's medicine a reality today," says Vet-Stem CEO Robert Harman. "We have seen hundreds of dogs benefit from the Vet-Stem regenerative cell therapy, and we are elated the results of this scientific study confirm such success."

Vet-Stem regenerative cell therapy has been used on horses since 2002 and launched for dogs in early 2008. Since then, more than a thousand veterinarians have completed the online credentialing course allowing them to use the stem cell therapy on more than 1,000 dogs across the nation.

"We've seen stem cell therapy save dogs whose only other option was euthanasia," said Dr. Harman. "And for animals where surgery and pharmaceuticals are not an option, Vet-Stem helps with problems like arthritis and joint and tendon injuries."

The procedure is simple. Veterinarians remove a small sample of fat from the dog and send it to Vet-Stem. Laboratory technicians isolate regenerative stem cells that reside in the fat, the high number of stem cells available eliminates the need to grow cells in culture or to manipulate the cells. The cells are then returned to the authorized veterinarian for treatment of the injured animal within 48 hours from collection of the fat.

The results from this study expand on one published in 2007, which explored the effectiveness of Vet-Stem's therapy for hip related osteoarthritis. The outcome showed that stem cells do improve healing in injured or arthritic dogs' hips. The findings stated that in a blinded, placebo controlled, clinical trial 80 percent of dogs improved significantly after being treated by stem cell therapy.

The most recent study published is only the beginning for the future of fat-derived stem cell therapy. Vet-Stem is currently conducting studies for the use of stem cells for internal medicine conditions as well.

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