Meet Retro, a cloned rhesus macaque born on July 16, 2020. He's now over 3 years old and continues to grow and get stronger, according to Falong Lu, one of the authors of a study published in the journal Nature Communications on Tuesday that describes how Retro was created.
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“Retro” is only the second cloned primate species that scientists have successfully created. The same research team announced in 2018 that it had created two identical cloned cynomolgus (a type of macaque), which are still alive today.
The first mammal to be cloned – Dolly the sheep – was created in 1996 using a technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer, or SCNT, where scientists reconstruct an unfertilized egg by fusing a nucleus (not from a sperm or egg) with an egg from which the nucleus has been removed.
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Since then, scientists have cloned many mammalian species, including pigs, cows, horses and dogs, but the process has been difficult, with only a very small percentage of embryos resulting in surviving offspring.
Researchers said the successful cloning of monkeys could help accelerate biomedical research, given that there are limits to what scientists can learn from laboratory mice. Research on nonhuman primates, which are closer to humans, has already proven vital to life-saving medical advances, including the creation of vaccines against Covid-19, according to a report by a committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine published in May.
See also: COVID-19 patients showed long-lasting brain changes
The use of monkeys in scientific research is a controversial issue due to ethical concerns about animal welfare. The team said it followed Chinese laws and guidelines governing the use of monkeys for scientific research.
Source: CNN
