Largest Global Cloning Center to Operate From Tianjin, China, in 2016

Summary: The world’s largest cloning center is being built in Tianjin, China, by Boyalife of China and Sooam of South Korea, and may produce human clones.

Panoramic view of Tianjin, port city where largest global cloning center is being built: Netopyr-e, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Chinese and South Korean partners are building the world's largest global cloning center where current technology can replicate humans, according to online news releases Nov. 23, 2015, from Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China.

The center, which is under construction in Tianjin, a port in northern China, belongs to the Boyalife Group of China and Sooam Biotech of South Korea. Hwang Woo-suk, founder of Sooam, and Xu Xiaochun, chief executive of Boyalife, count upon the center being ready for production in the first half of 2016. Dr. Xu describes the first annual production priorities as 100,000 cattle embryos and the subsequent aims as yearly outputs of a million cloned cows by 2020.

Dr. Xu expects Kobe quality cloned beef.

Dr. Xu feels that cloning, not genetic modification, ensures uniformity: “Remember, this is a food. We want it to be uniform, very consistent, very premium quality.”

Quality concerns and the technological sciences orientation give Boyalife a construction site in the Tianjin Economic and Technological Development area (TEDA), a government-sponsored business development park. Construction designs and schedules have joint inputs from Peking University’s Institute of Molecular Medicine; Sinica, a Boyalife subsidiary; Sooam; and Tianjin International Joint Academy of Biomedicine. Completion is sufficiently prioritized to warrant investments of 200 million yuan ($31 million) and involvement of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Yunnan Primates Biomedicine Laboratory.

Dr. Xu judges cattle the first of many Biolife and Sooam cloning plans.

Dr. Hwang already knows of commercial and research applications as the creator of Snuppy (Seoul National University puppy), the world’s first cloned dog, April 24, 2005.

Dr. Hwang lists among on-going projects re-introducing into Arctic tundras extinct woolly mammoths by cloning cells preserved for thousands of years in Siberia’s permanently frozen soils. He mentions as major sources of funds for Sooam projects recreating, for $100,000 per embryo, more than 550 cloned dog: guides, 911-sniffers, pets, Tibetan mastiffs. He notes that Sooam’s three sections for bovine, canine and porcine production will become sections for beef cattle, pet and sniffer dogs and racehorses in Tianjin.

The 150,000-square-foot (13,935.45-square-meter) center offers both lead scientists space to pursue human cloning.

Mutual commitments and overlapping interests prove controversial since Dr. Hwang’s recent achievements reverse accusations of falsifying claims as the first creator of human embryos in 2004/2005.

The largest global cloning center qualifies as a cutting-edge opportunity for Dr. Hwang to clone humans since “We have decided to locate the facilities in China in case we enter the phase of applying the technology to human bodies” because of “South Korea’s bioethics law that prohibits the use of human eggs.” Construction plans reveal a laboratory with 5 million cell samples, frozen in liquid nitrogen, from endangered wildlife; a museum; and sectors for cow, dog and racehorse-cloning.

Clones should have room a-plenty there or extraterrestrially, if not on overcrowded Earth.

Daily Mirror image credit Getty: Daily Mirror ‏@DailyMirror via Twitter Dec. 1, 2015

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Tianjin panorama: Netopyr-e, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Panoramic_View_from_Tianjin_TV_Tower_East(small)(2008-08).JPG?uselang=de

Daily Mirror image credit Getty: Daily Mirror ‏@DailyMirror via Twitter Dec. 1, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/DailyMirror/status/671697375157747712

For further information:

“Animal Cloning Center To Be Built in Tianjin.” Boyalife Group > News Release > 2015-11-23.
Available @ http://www.boyalifegroup.com/english/news31.htm

“BoyaLife-SOOAM-CAS Collaboration on Primate Model Animal Technology and Human Disease Mechanism Research.” Boyalife Group > News Release > 2015-11-17.
Available @ http://www.boyalifegroup.com/english/news31.htm

Daily Mirror ‏@DailyMirror. 1 December 2015. "Could the world's largest animal cloning factory soon be churning out HUMANS?" Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/DailyMirror/status/671697375157747712

News 18 @CNNnews18. "World's largest cloning factory scientist claims to have technology advanced enough to replicate humans." Twitter. Dec. 1, 2015.
Available @ https://twitter.com/CNNnews18/status/671811065299120128

NewsBeat Social. "World's Biggest Animal Cloning Factory to Open in China." YouTube. Nov. 24, 2015.
Available @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0ZMuQkvbIY

“World’s Largest Cloning Factory Scientist Claims to Have Technology Advanced Enough to Replicate Humans.” IBN Live > Tech > 1 December 2015.
Available @ http://www.ibnlive.com/news/tech/worlds-largest-cloning-factory-scientist-claims-to-have-technology-advanced-enough-to-replicate-humans-1171011.html