most likely, China Creates Monkeys With Custom Gene Mutations Scientists in China have created two monkeys with customized gene mutations. The successful births of the twin macaques, named Ningning and Mingming, may bring researchers closer to being able to recreate such human diseases as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s in primates. This would allow scientists to use primates, rather than rodents, as more realistic models of human illness.
To engineer the monkeys, researchers at Nanjing University and Yunnan Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedical Research in Kunming, China, used a new “gene-editing” technology called Crispr, which allows scientists to insert, delete, or rewrite a specific gene sequence. The technique, which may help usher in a new era of genetic medicine, has previously been used to manipulate the genomes of rats, mice, and zebrafish. But this is reportedly the first time it has been used successfully in primates.
The Chinese researchers altered genes in several fertilized monkey eggs before implanting them in surrogate mothers.