A Breakthrough in Research on Chimeric Primates: Potentials and Ethical Considerations
Scientific research has achieved a new milestone with the recent birth of a chimeric monkey, characterized by a high percentage of homologous embryonic stem cells (ESCs). This result holds significant implications for understanding the pluripotency of stem cells in primates and the development of genetic modifications in non-human primates.
The research, reported in the journal Cell, was conducted by a team of scientists: Jing Cao, Wenjuan Li, Jie Li, Qiang Sun, Miguel A. Esteban, and Zhen Liu, in collaboration with many Chinese research centers: Institute of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, CAS Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Shaanxi Province, College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Laboratory of Integrative Biology, Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, BGI-Research, Hangzhou, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine, CAS Key Laboratory of Regenerative Biology, Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Severe Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Key Laboratory for Zoonosis Research of the Ministry of Education, Institute of Zoonosis, and College of Veterinary Medicine, Jilin University, Changchun.