The British journal Nature has confirmed the authenticity of the world's first cloned dog Snuppy produced by Hwang Woo-suk's research team.

The journal on Wednesday said it had assigned the U.S. National Human Genome Research Institute to verify whether Snuppy was cloned.

The institute collected cell samples from Snuppy, the somatic cells of its parent dog Tie, the dog that provided eggs and the surrogate mother dog.