Two Twin Long-Tailed Macaque Monkeys Are the First Primates Cloned Using the Dolly Method (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The twin long-tailed macaque monkeys are the first primates cloned using the same method that created the world's most famous sheep in 1996 -- a method called somatic cell nuclear transfer, or SCNT. The twins' genetic blueprints were swiped from fetal cells of another monkey. Researchers then popped the DNA into egg cells that they had also cleared of their DNA-containing nuclei. With a dash of compounds that spur embryo development, the reprogrammed cells developed into healthy baby monkeys in surrogate mother monkeys. The two were born about seven weeks ago in China and are developing normally so far, researchers reported Wednesday in the journal Cell. Though the overall SCNT method is the same as what was used for Dolly, researchers struggled for years to tweak it to work in primates. The procedure is delicate and required a lot of optimization -- not to mention DNA-swaps.

The researchers behind the cute clones, led by Zhen Liu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, first tried using DNA from adult monkey cells. They created 192 embryos this way, implanting 181 of them into 42 surrogates, leading to 22 pregnant monkeys. But this resulted in the live birth of only two monkeys, both of which died within hours. Next, the researchers tried using DNA from fetal tissue. They created 109 embryos, implanted 79 of them into 21 surrogates, leading to pregnancy in six of them. Two female monkeys, Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, resulted. The researchers attribute their success to new cell-imaging methods, tweaking the right mix of reprogramming compounds, and lots of practice.

Comments

We need to be practical here.

[Anonymous Coward]

Could we focus are efforts on something a little more tasty?

Re:We need to be practical here.

[drinkypoo]

Could we focus are efforts on something a little more tasty?

Behold, the five-assed monkey.

Hot swap clones

[goombah99]

I'm pretty excited about having hot swappable organs all ready for my old age stored in my lobotomized clone body.

Re:Hot swap clones

[Scarred Intellect]

I'm pretty excited about having hot swappable organs all ready for my old age stored in my lobotomized clone body.

They already tried; it was discovered that the bodies need to really live for the organs to be healthy. There's a nice documentary on it called The Island.

Terrible Headline

[Stormy Dragon]

"Two Twin Long-Tailed Macaque Monkeys Are the First Primates Cloned Using the Dolly Method"

My first attempt to parse this resulted in me thinking there was some sort of monkey with two tails, and now I am sad that there is not.

STOCK TIP

[Zurkeyon3733]

Invest in organ farming... Because this signals the dawn of it. The SECOND people can be cloned, the organ farms will begin. Bodies without brains. Empty shells filled with replacement parts. EXACT replacement parts... No Rejection. No Lifetime of Anti-Rejection Drugs. The New world of 140-200 year old elitists, taking OLD money to all new heights. Sociopaths that can live two CENTURIES. Isn't this JUST what the world needed? INVEST NOW! SCREW BITCOIN! :-D LOL!

Re:STOCK TIP

[Nostalgia4Infinity]

The path to farmed human organs lies in taking a relatively compatible animal embryo, say a pig, knocking out it's genes for whatever organ you need, inserting your genes for that organ and letting it grow. Then you simply remove the kidney, heart, whatever, that's now pretty much identical to the one you were born with. Human clones for organs is a primitive idea in the field of biology today.

Re:STOCK TIP

[Immerman]

I think we're a good ways away from understanding DNA well enough to do that - and even with a perfect transcoding there's no guarantee they'd actually grow the same organ as would be produced by human cells - an incredible amount of growth structure is governed by environmental conditions, rather than the DAN directly. Or alternately the DNA gives instructions on how to build structure in a given environment - change the environment, and the structure changes as well.

As a crude example, if researchers graft skin from opposite sides of a salamander's leg around a wound, it will grow a new leg at that location.

Plus, you'd still have the problem of tissue rejection - that "human" organ is still made out of pig cells.

On the other hand, we don't actually *need* to make human organs - just human-compatible ones. I suspect the modifications needed for that are relatively simple, at least if you could first manage some sort of "universal tissue donor" cellular changes first. Might be easier to start with a chimpanzee or bonobo though - nearly identical genetically and structurally. Tweak it to grow appropriately sized organs, but only a stub of a brain - minimizing ethical considerations while leaving it capable enough to be farmed rather than lab-grown. Of course, if you're doing that, you could always start with a human template - but that would probably make a lot of people a whole lot more uncomfortable, and could create some difficult social questions if interbreeding were possible. If phenominally stupid chimpanzee crossbreeds enter the wild, we can just let nature sort it out.

Hey, while we're at it maybe we can give the donor animal duplicate organs and the ability to regenerate - no need to kill it to get an organ, you just can't harvest the same organ again until the second one has had a chance to grow back. Much more efficient that way, and the donated organs would likely prove far more resilient than the originals.

Re:I either have dyslexia or need new glasses.

[R3d M3rcury]

I gotta admit, my first question is whether they have used the Dolly Method to clone llamas, just so they can have "Dolly Llamas."

I'll be here all week. Try the veal!