The first ever monkey clones were created in a Chinese laboratory and it has raised ethical concerns among the critics
China has introduced to the whole world the first ever monkey clones which they named Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, the Mandarin term for the Chinese nation and people.
Dr. Quang Sun of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Neuroscience said that the identical long-tailed macaques will be useful as a model for studying diseases with a genetic basis.
They will be used for researches regarding some cancers, metabolic and immune disorders, based on the recent article published in BBC News.
After 79 failed attempts, Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua were created. They are currently being bottle fed and are growing normally.
The two non-human primate clones were created through the DNA transfer technique.
The DNA is being transferred from the nucleus of a cell to a donated egg cell, which has had its own DNA removed.
After that, it will develop into an embryo and implanted in a surrogate animal.
“We tried several different methods, but only one worked. There was much failure before we found a way to successfully clone a monkey.” Dr. Sun said.
He also stated that they followed strict international guidelines for animal research, set by the US National Institutes of Health.
This might sound a remarkable scientific breakthrough; however, critics said that this will raise ethical concerns leading to a possible human cloning in the future.
On that note, Prof Robin Lovell-Badge of The Francis Crick Institute in London said that the technique used to create the monkey clones were inefficient and very dangerous.
“The work in this paper is not a stepping-stone to establishing methods for obtaining live born human clones,” Lovell-Badge iterated, based on the report.
Regarding that concern, co-researcher Dr Muming Poo from Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai said that they are aware that scientists following very strict ethical standards will the basis of future research using non-human primates anywhere in the world.