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Monkey Born With Genetically Engineered Cells
Scientists in Portland, Ore. U.S., report that they have inserted a foreign gene into a monkey egg, fertilized the egg and produced a baby monkey with the added gene in its cells.
The scientists say they believe that this is the first time researchers have used techniques of genetic engineering to alter an unfertilized egg of a primate, intending that the change be passed on to future generations.
The gene, which comes from a jellyfish, is only a marker ¡ª it causes cells to make a protein that glows under a fluorescent light. And in this case, though the monkey's cells have the gene, they are not making the protein, the researchers report. Further, it is too soon to tell whether the monkey's sperm will contain the added gene.
"In many ways this is an incremental step," said Dr. Gerald Schatten, the senior author of the report, published today in the journal Science. Dr. Schatten is a professor of obstetrics and gynecology and cell and developmental biology at Oregon Health Sciences University.
Still, it is a step that is likely to be controversial.
What is of interest, I think, in Gerry Schatten's work is the possibility that one could learn about certain types of diseases in ways that we really couldn't in humans," said Patricia Backlar, an ethicist at the university. "But there's also the issue there that maybe we shouldn't do this on nonhuman primates. That's an issue. I can't resolve it for you."
Dr. Schatten said his ultimate goal was to create colonies of monkeys that had been genetically modified to develop a human disease. Then, he said, he could use the animals to study new treatments for humans with the disease.
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