Milestone for targeted gene-editing technology promises
better models for human diseases.
The ultimate potential of precision gene-editing techniques
is beginning to be realised. Today, researchers in China report the first
monkeys engineered with targeted mutations1, an achievement that could be a
stepping stone to making more realistic research models of human diseases.
Xingxu Huang, a geneticist at the Model Animal Research
Center of Nanjing University in China, and his colleagues successfully
engineered twin cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) with two targeted
mutations using the CRISPR/Cas9 system — a technology that has taken the field
of genetic engineering by storm in the past year. Researchers have leveraged
the technique to disrupt genes in mice and rats2, 3, but until now none had
succeeded in primates.