Chinese scientists cloned monkeys in world first

China has successfully cloned the world’s first two macaques from somatic cells with the same method used in cloning Dolly, as published on the website of the scientific journal Cell on Thursday.

The technique can help researchers to “customize” monkey groups with exactly the same genes, and go further in human disease research.

Named “Zhong Zhong” and “Hua Hua” (“Zhonghua” stands for China), these two cloned macaques were born on November 27 and December 5, 2017, after five years’ of research by the scientists from Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

“Zhong Zhong” and “Hua Hua”.

The technique, namely somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), is what researchers remove the nucleus from an egg cell, and replace it with the nucleus from a somatic cell to produce a viable embryo. In this case, the scientists used the somatic cells from a macaque and created genetically identical ones.

Emilie Marcus, editor-in-chief of Cell called the result an exciting, significant work and a milestone that scientists worldwide have achieved using 20 years. It has the potential to trigger a revolution in animal research and help develop new treatments to human diseases.

The world’s first two macaques cloned from somatic cells.

The two long-tailed primates, called “Crab-eating macaque”, have the scientific name of “Macaca fascicularis.”

(CGTN)