A South Korean biotech company on Monday unveiled four Labrador retriever puppies it said were cloned from a Japanese dog skilled at sniffing¹ out patients with cancer.

RNL Bio, affiliated² with the stem cell lab of Seoul National University, said the puppies were born three weeks ago and would be sent to Japan in September for training.

The puppies are clones of a six-and-a-half-year-old black Labrador retriever named Marine³, which is thought to have a well-honed sense for detecting cancer, RNL Bio said.

The cloning, requested by the Japanese stemcell company Seems, was conducted by a team led by Seoul National University professor Lee Byeong-Chun, it said.

"Marine has excellent characteristics for cancer sniffing and I hope the cloned dogs have the same characteristics," said Lee, who previously⁴ headed world's first dog cloning project.

Seems wanted to clone the dogs because Marine could not give birth to siblings⁵ following an operation to have her womb removed, it said.

"Thanks to the cloning technology, it (Marine) has been able to preserve its own genes," said a statement on RNL Bio's website.

Researchers in several countries are investigating whether dogs have the ability to detect lung, breast, prostate and skin cancer at an early and treatable stage.

They believe cancer cells create a scent⁶ not present in healthy cells, which can theoretically be picked up by dogs in breath or urine samples.

韩国一家生物科技公司于本周一宣布，他们以日本一只拉布拉多嗅癌犬为原型，成功克隆出四只嗅癌猎犬。

首尔国立大学干细胞实验室附属RNL生物科技公司说，这几只嗅癌犬于三周前出生，并将于九月被送往日本接受训练。

据该公司介绍，接受克隆的是一只六岁半的黑色拉布拉多猎犬“马琳”，这只猎犬被认为具有很强的癌症嗅探能力。

据介绍，嗅癌犬克隆项目是应日本西姆斯干细胞公司的要求，由首尔国立大学的李秉春教授领导的科研小组负责开展的。

曾负责世界首个克隆犬项目的李秉春教授说：“马琳拥有超凡的癌症嗅探能力，希望被克隆出的狗也具备这种能力。”

西姆斯公司希望克隆嗅癌犬，是因为马琳的子宫被摘除，无法生育后代。

RNL生物科技公司在其网站上发表的一份声明中称：“幸亏有克隆技术，马琳的基因才能得以延续。”

目前，有几个国家的科研人员正在研究狗是否具有嗅探早期和可医治期的肺癌、乳腺癌、前列腺癌和皮肤癌的能力。

研究人员认为，癌细胞会散发出一种健康细胞所没有的气味，所以从理论上说，狗可以从人的呼吸或尿样中嗅出这种气味。

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