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Almost a year ago today, Chinese scientists revealed that they had managed to clone a monkey, giving birth to two genetically identical babies. This is a monumental achievement that has resulted in a whole field of mining ethical questions and very few answers, and the situation becomes even more complicated.
In a new announcement, also outside China, researchers have revealed that they have cloned a handful of new monkeys, but this time, the donor monkey has been genetically modified to present specific disorders badociated with hormonal imbalance and mental health.
In a pair of new articles published by scientists, the team describes the success of cloning by somatic cell nuclear transfer, while noting that the cloned monkey had the same circadian symptoms as the donor monkey. The donor was designed to be born with a modified gene that causes mental disorders and symptoms that are related to anxiety and depression, or even schizophrenic habits.
The research has actually cloned more than 300 embryos that have been implanted into dozens of surrogate mothers to carry them. 16 pregnancies occurred but only five live births followed. Baby monkeys all had the same symptoms as their predecessors, which is actually what the researchers were hoping for.
"We believe that this approach of cloning genes-modified monkeys could be used to generate a variety of monkey models for gene diseases, including many brain diseases, as well as immune and metabolic disorders and cancer," said Qiang Sun, senior author research, said in a statement.
The team suggested that by cloning genetically engineered animals for medical testing, they can more quickly and easily see what kind of treatment is working or not, and monitor side effects more accurately. However, as you may have already guessed, this news is not very encouraging for those who strive to meet ethical standards in genetic research and cloning.
The genetic modification of monkey embryos so that the resulting animals are affected by various diseases is of potential concern. Creating exact copies of these animals to effectively build up a stock of suffering animals to test is even more frightening. But can the potential benefits of developing treatments for suffering humans outweigh the disadvantages? This is something that scientists are still discussing and that they will probably continue to debate for a moment.
Image Source: Chinese Academy of Sciences
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