In an early step toward developing a potentially invaluable animal model, scientists, for the first time, have genetically modified a nonhuman primate (A.W. Chan et al., "Transgenic monkeys produced by retroviral gene transfer into mature oocytes," Science, 291:309-12, Jan. 12, 2001). Researchers at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland used a replication-incompetent retrovirus as a vector to deliver the gene for green fluorescent protein (GFP) into a rhesus monkey oocyte (a mature egg). According to lead author Anthony W.S. Chan, the procedure, in the works for two and a half years, is a tricky one. Oocytes are hard to come by, and relatively little is known about primate embryology. Of the 224 eggs fertilized, half of them developed; forty embryos were selected and placed into 20 surrogate monkey moms. Of the five successful pregnancies, there were three live births. But tests have ...
Research Notes
Monkey Knockout In an early step toward developing a potentially invaluable animal model, scientists, for the first time, have genetically modified a nonhuman primate (A.W. Chan et al., "Transgenic monkeys produced by retroviral gene transfer into mature oocytes," Science, 291:309-12, Jan. 12, 2001). Researchers at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland used a replication-incompetent retrovirus as a vector to deliver the gene for green f
Written byEugene Russo
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