World's first GM monkey
US scientists have created the first genetically modified non-human primate, a baby rhesus monkey called ANDi.
Today's issue of Science reports on the work of the Oregon Health Sciences University team of scientists who created ANDi -- backwards for "inserted DNA" -- who was born on 2 October, 2000.
"ANDi is robust and plays normally with his two roommates," reports researcher Gerald Schatten.
ANDi contains an extra gene, added when he was just an unfertilised egg. It was a simple marker gene, designed to be easily identified within his genetic blueprint. But, says Schatten, the same modification method could be used to give other laboratory animals genes that would help scientists research specific medical conditions and their treatment.
"We could just as easily introduce, for example, an Alzheimer's gene, to accelerate the development of a vaccine for that disease," says Schatten, who last year reported the first monkey successfully cloned by embryo splitting.
Researchers say the genetically altered mice and flies already used in labs are relatively poor models for human disease. Primates like monkeys, on the other hand, are genetically much closer to humans and would thus provide better experimental mimics of human diseases like breast cancer or AIDS.
"In this way, we hope to bridge the scientific gap between transgenic mice and humans," says Schatten. "We could also get better answers from fewer animals, while accelerating the discovery of cures through molecular medicine."
|Genetic modification process (Pic: Science)|
Some 224 eggs were modified by the researchers, and fertilised by injection with sperm, producing 40 embryos. After the embryos were transferred to 20 surrogate mothers, five pregnancies resulted. Three healthy male babies were born, while two infants were stillborn.
Of the three healthy infants, researchers say only ANDi showed a successful integration of the transgene integration in tests of cells obtained from his cheek, hair, urine, placenta and birth cord.
The BBC comments that the development is set to pose new ethical questions.
"Some will look at ANDi and see a Frankenstein monster, a forerunner of a nightmare genetic future in which feeling creatures suffer at the hands of immoral scientists who do not care how they obtain their experimental data," writes science editor David Whitehouse.
"Others will see ANDi as potentially one of the greatest advances in tackling human ailments. A living creature due respect but who can contribute to alleviating human misery."
"The idea of using monkeys to model human diseases takes the ethical arguments into a new sphere -- way beyond those that already rage over the use of rodents. Monkeys are creatures that are so much closer to human capacities and sentience," he continues.
"So how far do you want to go?," he asks readers. "Science is asking you some big questions."