One of the key scientists on both The Missyplicity Project and at Genetic Savings & Clone was Dr. Taeyoung Shin, who was born and completed his Ph.D. in South Korea before coming to the United States. After both The Missyplicity Project and GSC proved unable to clone dogs, Dr. Shin’s Ph.D. thesis advisor, Dr. Woo Suk Hwang, lead a team of research scientists at Seoul National University in a major dog cloning effort. This project was designed to overcome the specific obstacles which had thwarted both the Missyplicity and GSC teams.

In 2006, Dr. Hwang and his team successfully cloned the world’s first dog, which they named Snuppy. In 2007, Lou Hawthorne, former CEO of GSC and current CEO of BioArts International, was introduced to Dr. Hwang and his team by Dr. Shin of BioArts, and asked if they would clone Missy. They readily agreed! Missy’s DNA was flown to the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation outside of Seoul. Click here for video of our partners at Sooam.

The scientists at Sooam, led by Dr. Hwang, took Missy’s DNA and successfully produced three Missy clones. After 10 years of research and effort, the quest to clone Missy had finally succeeded! There are now three identical clones of Missy back with the original family. The clones are named Mira (after a Korean myth of an all-powerful benevolent dragon), Chingu (which means "friend" in Korean) and Sarang ("love"). To view the supporting documents from UC Davis stating that the clones are identical to Missy, click here.

The collaboration between BioArts and Sooam to clone Missy was so successful that the two organizations decided to partner to offer a limited number of cloning spots to the public through the Best Friends Again program. Sooam will be contributing production services. BioArts will be providing customer service and the worldwide exclusive legal rights to clone dogs, as well as certain technology that increase the efficiency and safety of cloning.