PORTLAND, Oregon -- Researchers have created the first genetically modified primate in the world, a baby rhesus monkey whose name ANDi stands for "inserted DNA" spelled backward.
Born in October, the male monkey carries a tiny extra bit of DNA in a gene introduced as a marker that can be seen under a microscope because it actually glows green, researchers at Oregon Health Sciences University said
.
The creation of ANDi was described in the Friday issue of the journal Science.
Researchers hope they now can introduce other genes in rhesus monkeys that could trigger a host of human diseases such as Alzheimer's, diabetes, breast cancer or HIV in order to find a way to block them at the genetic level.
The technique for inserting the gene has been used for more than a quarter century in mice, but comparing a mouse to a human being has limits, said Dr. Gerald Schatten. He is leading the research at the university's Oregon Regional Primate Center.
Because monkeys are close cousins to humans in terms of DNA, they may give scientists a better picture of how human disease develops, he said.
"I think we're at an extraordinary moment in the history of humans," Schatten said Wednesday.
A year ago, Schatten reported the first monkey successfully cloned by embryo splitting. That monkey is named Tetra. ANDi and his surrogate mother, as well as Tetra, remain healthy, Schatten said.
ANDi received an extra gene while he was still an unfertilized egg.
Schatten, lead author Anthony W.S. Chan and other researchers modified and then fertilized more than 200 rhesus monkey eggs. Forty embryos were produced, and resulted in five pregnancies and three live births. Of the three baby monkeys, only ANDi proved to have the modified genes.
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Wed Sep 12, 2012 2:52 pm
