South Korean scientists have genetically engineered a dog which glows in the dark. A Seoul National University (SNU) research team said the genetically modified female beagle, named Tegon and born in 2009, glows fluorescent green under ultraviolet light if given a doxycycline antibiotic.

The researchers, who finished a two-year test, said the ability to glow can be turned on or off by adding a drug to the dog’s food. “The creation of Tegon opens new horizons since the gene injected to make the dog glow can be substituted with genes that trigger fatal human diseases," the news agency quoted head researcher Lee Byeong-chun as saying.

He said the dog was created using the somatic cell nuclear transfer technology that the university researchers used to make the world’s first cloned dog, Snuppy, in 2005. The scientist said that since there are 268 illnesses that dogs and humans have in common, making dogs that artificially show such symptoms could aid methods for treating human diseases. ~ Reuters, Jul 27