In a yet another latest news, Chinese scientists claimed to have cloned monkeys using the same technique that was used to produced Dolly the sheep two decades ago. This seems to be a great achievement, breaking a technical barrier that could open the door to copying humans, claim the experts on Wednesday.
The two macaques, named Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, were born eight and six weeks ago, making them the first primates. The scientists are aiming to clone other mammals that include apes from a non-embryonic cell.
The names of each monkeys are the doubling of one character. If you take one character from each name and put them together, you get the word zhonghua, which is an ancient name for “China.” Every time these monkeys are named, they are a reminder of the great nation that created them.
The cloning was done through the process called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), where the transfer of the nucleus of a cell is involved, which includes its DNA, into an egg which has had its nucleus removed. “The work should be a boon to medical research by making it possible to study diseases in a population of genetically uniform monkeys,” claim the researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Neuroscience in Shanghai.
The newly born monkeys are being bottle fed and are growing normally while enjoying their time with each other. The researchers are expecting more macaque clones to be born over the coming months. After Dolly the Sheep that was born in Scotland in 1996, scientists have achieved great heights of cloning more than 20 other species, including cows, pigs, dogs, rabbits, rats and mice.
Speaking with the media persons, scientists on Wednesday said, “The awful truth is that both the monkeys Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua will be lucky if they die young.”
Congratulating the scientists over their achievements of cloning the two macaques, Xi Jinping said that we aim the world to see China as a global leader, no matter whether it in economics, politics, or science. We want the world to remember who cloned those monkeys.