Biotech startup Macrogen said Wednesday it has produced the first cloned mice in the country.

Dr. Kwon Oh-yong, a fellow researcher at the company, has succeeded in engineering cloned mice through joint research with a team from Tokyo University of Agriculture.

The company said that the experiment's success opens the door to the mass production of transgenic mice (or knock-out/knock-in mice) by shortening the production period by one year. Until now, it took one year and three months to generate transgenic mice.

The company forecast that cloned mice will likely be used to study human genes and potential treatment of genetic diseases.