Precision gene editing paves way for monkey models of genetic disease

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Image via Nature. Credit: Rod Williams/NaturePL.com

Anthony Chan spent two years creating the first five monkeys in the world to be genetically engineered with human mutations — in this case, for Huntington’s disease. But three of the five monkeys, reported in 2008, developed severe symptoms of Huntington’s much more quickly than anticipated, and had to be killed within a month of birth.

Chan, a geneticist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and other scientists around the world are now eyeing precision genome-editing techniques that solve such problems by using enzymes and RNA instead of viruses. Many have high hopes that transgenic monkeys will mimic human genetic conditions more faithfully than mice — and thus permit better drug-development tests and accelerate basic research in neuro­science.

Read the full, original story here: Precision gene editing paves way for transgenic monkeys

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