The creation of Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, by tinkering with the method used for Dolly the sheep, raises ethical dilemmasJEFF J MITCHELL/REUTERS

Science behind Dolly the Sheep creates monkey clones

 

The birth of two baby monkeys created through the same procedure used to make Dolly the sheep could take science closer towards cloning humans, according to experts.

The crab-eating macaques, Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, are the closest animals to humans yet to be created by effectively carbon-copying a single individual’s DNA.

The Chinese experiment also raises the ethically fraught possibility of testing new treatments on production lines of primates with identical genes.

Since Dolly was born at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh on July 5, 1996, scientists have used the method — known as somatic cell nuclear transfer — to clone 23 more species, including pigs, cattle, a cat called Rainbow and a British boxer dog named Dylan.

The approach involves extracting a nucleus,…

 

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Link: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cloned-monkeys-zhong-zhong-and-hua-hua-bring-identikit-humans-a-step-closer-zhen-liu-chinese-academy-of-sciences-in-shanghai-ln5dvjllc