World's First Cloned Rats

Who is Ralph? He is the world's first cloned rat. Created by Jean-Paul Renard at the French Institute for Agronomy Research, Jouy en Josas, France, Ralph has already become a father. He has sired a litter of two month old pups.

Until now, many researchers had tried their hand at cloning rats and given up. Standard techniques of cloning do not work with rats. Renard's team grew rat eggs in a culture dish with a drug that prevents cell division, then followed the normal procedure.

A few decades earlier Michael Gould from the University of Wisconsin-Madison made history be developing the first GM rat. Till date, more than 5000 GM strains of rats have been created.

References
Zhou, Q. et al. Generation of fertile cloned rats using controlled timing of oocyte activation. Sciencexpress, published online, doi:10.1126/science.1088313 (2003).