Whole labs full of genetically identical macaques can now be created – prompting fears about the ramifications of humans being replicated
Two monkeys are the first ever primates to be cloned using
the technique that created Dolly the sheep.
The technique brings the prospect of cloned human beings
even more closer. But scientists caution that there may be no good reason to
create such clones, and that ethical and legal questions need to be answered
about such research.
More immediately, the technique will allow researchers to
create whole labs full of genetically identical monkeys. That could prove
tremendously useful in scientific and medical research – allowing doctors to
watch how specific treatments affect the genetic makeup of animals that are
otherwise exactly the same, for instance.
The two identical long-tailed macaques – named Zhong Zhong
and Hua Hua – were born eight and six weeks ago at a laboratory in China. They
represent the furthest reaches of cloning technology, genetically resembling
each other entirely.
They aren’t, strictly, the first primates to have been
cloned. But they are the first to be produced using the single cell nuclear
transfer (SCNT) technique, which involves transferring cell nucleus DNA to a
donated egg cell that is then prompted to develop into an embryo, and is the
same process used for Dolly the sheep. Previous work has relied on splitting
embryos, which is the same phenomenon that happens when twins are born and can
only produce four offspring.
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| Qiang Sun and Mu-ming Poo, Chinese Academy of Sciences |
Scientists have cloned monkeys and it could help treat
cancer
Meet the first of a possible army of cloned monkeys that
could treat many diseases, but is this a step to human cloning, and will anyone
but China accept them?
Chinese scientists clone monkeys, break barrier to human cloning
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| Chinese scientists successfully clone monkeys |
LONDON — Chinese scientists have cloned monkeys using the
same technique that produced Dolly the sheep two decades ago, breaking a
technical barrier that could open the door to copying humans.
Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, two identical long-tailed macaques,
were born eight and six weeks ago, making them the first primates -- the order
of mammals that includes monkeys, apes and humans -- to be cloned from a
non-embryonic cell.
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