The Chinese scientists have developed clone monkeys to study the medical disorders like autism,Alzheimer’s and sleeping disorders.
They have cloned five monkeys from a gene-edited macaque with circadian rhythm disorders that are linked to sleep disorders, depression and Alzheimer’s disease, according to the Institute of Neuroscience (ION) of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Shanghai.
With the cloned pair of monkeys the scientists are planning to conduct advanced research into the disorders and reduce the number of animal models used in experiments.
Chinese Scientists made the announcement of the monkey cloning on Thursday with two articles published in National Science Review, a top Chinese journal in English.
Recently China has punished a scientist for experimentally given birth to twin babies. The announcement with photographs of the newly born monkeys in incubator comes in the backdrop of China punishing a scientist He Jiankui whose experiments resulted in the birth of twin gene edited babies.
In this context,the researchers plan to continue improving the technique in order to increase the efficiency of cloning. The group is expecting more macaque clones carrying disease-causing gene mutations to be generated in the coming years.
“This work required coordinated efforts of many laboratories, and serves as a clear example of the efficient teamwork that is highly emphasized by CAS, the research will help to reduce the amount of macaque monkeys currently used in biomedical research around the world.”” said Muming Poo, a co-author on both studies, who directs ION and helps to supervise the project.
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