Scientists in Portland, Ore., say they inserted a new gene into a monkey egg, fertilized the egg and produced a baby monkey last October with the added gene in its cells.
ANDi, the bioengineered rhesus monkey, looks and behaves no differently from a standard monkey. Its name, backward, stands for “inserted DNA.”
The gene is only a marker: When it is active, it directs cells to make a protein that fluoresces–and it has not elicited that protein in the monkey. But the work is believed to be the first time researchers have used the techniques of genetic engineering to alter an unfertilized egg in the human family–primates–with the intention of passing on that change to future generations.
Dr. Gerald Schatten, senior author of the report published Friday in the journal Science, said his goal is to create colonies of monkeys, with each monkey genetically modified to develop a human disease. He said he would use the animals to study new ways to treat humans.
But Schatten, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology and cell and developmental biology at Oregon Health Sciences University, emphasized that the gene he inserted in the monkey is just a test case.
Its advantage is that it is easy to see if it is active because the cells containing the gene glow under a fluorescent light. The gene, which comes from a jellyfish, does not cause disease. Schatten stressed that ANDi is not green. “These are not Day-Glo monkeys,” he said.
He said he does not yet know if the gene will be in ANDi’s sperm cells, necessary if modified monkeys are to produce a colony.
Still, it is a step that is likely to be controversial.
“What is of interest . . . 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 Oregon Health Sciences University.
But Lori Andrews, a professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law who studies reproductive technologies, said she worried about the future. “Once you start attempting genetic engineering in monkeys, humans can’t be far behind,” she said.
