Glowing Monkeys ‘To Aid Research’
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Momento24.com
May 2009

Though primates modified to generate a glowing protein have been created before, these are the first to keep the change in their bloodlines.

ar-glowing

Future genetic modifications to primates could aid efforts to cure such diseases as Parkinson’s.

The work raises a number of ethical questions about deliberately exposing a bloodline of animals to such diseases.

Now, Erika Sasaki of the Central Institute for Experimental Animals in Japan, and her colleagues, have introduced a gene into marmoset embryos that allows them to build green fluorescent protein (GFP) in their tissues.

The protein is so-called because it glows green in a process known as fluorescence.

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