Two Twin Long-Tailed Macaque Monkeys Are the First Primates Cloned Using the Dolly Method (arstechnica.com) 61
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The twin long-tailed macaque monkeys are the first primates cloned using the same method that created the world's most famous sheep in 1996 -- a method called somatic cell nuclear transfer, or SCNT. The twins' genetic blueprints were swiped from fetal cells of another monkey. Researchers then popped the DNA into egg cells that they had also cleared of their DNA-containing nuclei. With a dash of compounds that spur embryo development, the reprogrammed cells developed into healthy baby monkeys in surrogate mother monkeys. The two were born about seven weeks ago in China and are developing normally so far, researchers reported Wednesday in the journal Cell. Though the overall SCNT method is the same as what was used for Dolly, researchers struggled for years to tweak it to work in primates. The procedure is delicate and required a lot of optimization -- not to mention DNA-swaps.
The researchers behind the cute clones, led by Zhen Liu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, first tried using DNA from adult monkey cells. They created 192 embryos this way, implanting 181 of them into 42 surrogates, leading to 22 pregnant monkeys. But this resulted in the live birth of only two monkeys, both of which died within hours. Next, the researchers tried using DNA from fetal tissue. They created 109 embryos, implanted 79 of them into 21 surrogates, leading to pregnancy in six of them. Two female monkeys, Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, resulted. The researchers attribute their success to new cell-imaging methods, tweaking the right mix of reprogramming compounds, and lots of practice.
The researchers behind the cute clones, led by Zhen Liu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, first tried using DNA from adult monkey cells. They created 192 embryos this way, implanting 181 of them into 42 surrogates, leading to 22 pregnant monkeys. But this resulted in the live birth of only two monkeys, both of which died within hours. Next, the researchers tried using DNA from fetal tissue. They created 109 embryos, implanted 79 of them into 21 surrogates, leading to pregnancy in six of them. Two female monkeys, Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, resulted. The researchers attribute their success to new cell-imaging methods, tweaking the right mix of reprogramming compounds, and lots of practice.
We need to be practical here. (Score:3, Funny)
Hot swap clones (Score:3)
I'm pretty excited about having hot swappable organs all ready for my old age stored in my lobotomized clone body.
Re:Hot swap clones (Score:5, Informative)
I'm pretty excited about having hot swappable organs all ready for my old age stored in my lobotomized clone body.
They already tried; it was discovered that the bodies need to really live for the organs to be healthy. There's a nice documentary on it called The Island [imdb.com].
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They already tried; it was discovered that the bodies need to really live for the organs to be healthy.
The spare body wouldn't just sit in a vat. You could give it enough of a brain stem to run on a treadmill for an hour per day.
Or you could use it as a "blood boy" for periodic transfusions of youthful blood. That seems to be working for Peter Thiel [vanityfair.com].
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lobotomized
But what if you need a new brain?
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Then you become the hot swap. your brain goes in the trash and someone elses goes in your body.
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Your brain circuits will be mapped to an artificial neural net.
You'll believe you're still you, but it will just be an illusion.
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I'm pretty excited about having hot swappable organs all ready for my old age stored in my lobotomized clone body.
Heh that reminded me that a few years ago, I was piddling around on YouTube, and ran across "The Resurrection of Zachary Wheeler", a TV movie I saw back in the 70's. Similar premise, except the brain/intelligence "reduction" was built in at the genetic level.
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When your brain gets too old, CR
Re:We need to be practical here. (Score:4, Funny)
Could we focus are efforts on something a little more tasty?
Behold, the five-assed monkey.
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And then armed them.
Oooooook (Score:2)
(throwing banana)
Terrible Headline (Score:3)
"Two Twin Long-Tailed Macaque Monkeys Are the First Primates Cloned Using the Dolly Method"
My first attempt to parse this resulted in me thinking there was some sort of monkey with two tails, and now I am sad that there is not.
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"Two Twin Long-Tailed Macaque Monkeys Are the First Primates Cloned Using the Dolly Method"
My first attempt to parse this resulted in me thinking there was some sort of monkey with two tails, and now I am sad that there is not.
The "Dolly " method isn't perfect. Keep watching. It could happen.
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My first thought was is there another meaning for "twin" when referring to something like monkeys other than "two"? The first word in the headline is superfluous at best, and confusing at worst.
It's about as redundant as the phrase "unmarried bachelor".
I either have dyslexia or need new glasses. (Score:2)
... Monkeys Are the First Primates Cloned Using the Dolly Method
I initially read that as "Pirates Cloned".
Then I thought of the musical Hello Dolly, then imagined a musical version of Pirates of the Caribbean -- "Curse of the Lead Feet", then wondered if they could use cloned monkeys for that.
Re:I either have dyslexia or need new glasses. (Score:5, Funny)
I gotta admit, my first question is whether they have used the Dolly Method to clone llamas, just so they can have "Dolly Llamas."
I'll be here all week. Try the veal!
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And the Madison family to have Dolly Madisons. Okay, so that's not the right right spelling. *sigh*
STOCK TIP (Score:2)
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Cloning and genetic engineering of superior humans will eventually happen so long as we can avoid blowing ourselves up or creating some superbug/virus that wipes us all out.
We're not playing God, we're playing Human using the tools that God gave us.
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2.1 for me. I never trust an x.0 version.
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5.1 for me.
Think about Windows, ESX etc
1.x for starters, 2.x refined version, 3.x first succesful version, 4.x screwing everything learned on 3.x with weird options and incompatibilities, 5.x the definitive working version. Above 5.x you are going to have 6.x with unneeded features, 7.x to forget the huge disaster the 6.x were, 8.x to try to reinvent the wheel and then the forever paying subscriptions model.
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Yeah, but that's a far less reliable rule, and this is life extension we're talking about - we probably won't survive to see version 5 unless we've already partaken of the fruits of earlier versions. With luck, and funding from the vast fortunes accumulated by the rich old men first able to cheat death, many of the later extensions will still work on those who already had earlier treatments.
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I think we're a good ways away from understanding DNA well enough to do that - and even with a perfect transcoding there's no guarantee they'd actually grow the same organ as would be produced by human cells - an incredible amount of growth structure is governed by environmental conditions, rather than the DAN directly. Or alternately the DNA gives instructions on how to build structure in a given environment - change the environment, and the structure changes as well.
As a crude example, if researchers gra
Fuck those things (Score:1)
(Everyone has agreed to not post any serious comments about the story, right? Ok, good. No adults allowed!)
As someone who plays Dwarf Fortress, I just want to be the first to say: Fuck rhesus macaques! We should be using science to get us fewer of them, not more of them!
Trump is making us so dumb... (Score:1)
...that monkeys have beaten us to cloning
Amazing (Score:2)
He’ll be the coolest monkey in the jungle.