Scientists in South Korea have created a glow in the dark dog with an on/off switch.
The beagle was made using a cloning technique that the researchers hope will help in efforts to find new treatments and possible cures to degenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
Two-year-old Tegon was genetically engineered to glow when placed under ultraviolet light.
Lee Byeong-Chun heads the research team at Seoul National University (SNU). He says that Tegon's ability to glow depends on what she is eating.
"We created a dog whose glowing fluorescent green gene can be turned off. However, It can be turned on by adding a drug to the dog's food," Mr Lee said.
Mr Lee says that the gene injected to make Tegon glow can be substituted with genes that trigger fatal human diseases. He hopes that by genetically modifying dogs, researchers can better explore and possibly find cures for the 268 illnesses humans and dogs have in common.
"It can be useful for developing a new medicine or treatment or for studying diseases. For example, we can inject the Alzheimer's gene into a dog and trigger the disease. Then we can study how to cure the disease with the dog," said Lee.
Tegon was created using the same somatic cell nuclear transfer technology that the university team used to make the world's first cloned dog, Snuppy, in 2005.
Glow in the dark dogs don't come cheap - it's taken four years and roughly US$3 million to create this pup - and the researchers are glowing with pride.
3 News / CBS