hollywoodtone.blogspot.com Genetically altered monkeys born
hollywoodtone.blogspot.com Genetically altered monkeys born
Twin monkeys have been born, but not in the conventional sense. These are the first primates born whose genomes were edited using a novel CRISPR technology (a type of genome editing).
The twin macaques are the first primates born whose genomes were edited using CRISPR technology. CRISPR is a technqiue that allows for precise genome editing in a relatively short amount of time. It uses an enzyme by which scientists can fix a disease-causing mutation or disable a single gene. With the monkeys, The Guardian explains that researchers injected one-cell embryos with an enzyme called Cas9 and they were able to turn off two genes simultaneously. The researchers reported that their interventions were 'precise' and that no side-effects, like mutations, occurred. The long-term aim is to try the technique with human cells, as a way to avoid people being born with certain genetic diseases. However, there is a long way to go as Wezhi Ji, a researcher at the Yunnan Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedical Research told MIT Technology Review: "We believe the success of this strategy in nonhuman primates gives lots of potential for its application in humans, but we think due to the safety issue, it will take a long way for expanding this strategy to human embryos." The birth of the twin monkeys has been described in the journal Cell. The research paper is titled "Generation of Gene-Modified Cynomolgus Monkey via Cas9/RNA-Mediated Gene Targeting in One-Cell Embryos".
hollywoodtone.blogspot.com Genetically altered monkeys born