6 research monkeys die after being implanted with a human gene

Scientists at the Chinese Kunming Institute of Zoology implanted a human developmental gene into the genome of rhesus monkeys.The monkeys with the human gene experienced improvement in their short-term memory and quicker reaction times.However, over half of the monkeys involved in the experiment died, raising some serious ethical questions about transgenic experimentation.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. According to a recent study published in National Science Review, scientists from the Chinese Kunming Institute of Zoology have successfully implanted a human developmental gene into the genome of rhesus monkeys.The scientists were looking into the growth of the human brain and incorporated MCPH1 or microcephalin — the gene that regulates brain growth in the human fetus — into rhesus monkeys' existing genes.According to the study, the monkeys are said to have become more intelligent through having the human gene, with their short-term memory improving and their reaction times shortening.Imaging methods showed that those monkeys with the human development gene had delayed neuronal maturation — a phenomenon human infants undergo — compared with those monkeys in the control group.In essence, the transgenic monkeys stayed in the childhood developmental phase for a longer period than would normally be the case with their species.Read more: NASA helped make a synthetic DNA structure that may shed light on what alien DNA could look likeOver half of the monkeys in the experiment diedDespite the “successful” implantation of the gene, only five of the 11 rhesus monkeys involved in the experiment survived.As a result, the scientists can only, at best, describe their findings as “preliminary” — the group of animals that were experimented on clearly constitutes too small a sample size to make a clear and accurate conclusion.In addition to the small sample size, the experiment has also caused some familiar ethical questions to resurface.This is, however, far from the first time researchers have produced transgenic organisms; by 1974, Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria had already been implanted with Staphylococcus aureus genes while, much later in 2001, a monkey was implanted with jellyfish genes, making it the first monkey to be classed as “transgenic”.While it may seem an ethically questionable practice, it's entirely commonplace for other species to be used in trials with human genes.Read more: The gene that causes depression may also make you more successful, research suggestsHuman genes have been inserted into monkeys to study diseases and conditions such as autism, while countless mice have been modified with human cognition genes, including altered microcephalin.Animal experiments such as these have long been condemned as ethically unacceptable, considering the suffering they cause animals.In most countries apart from China, experiments of this sort are prohibited by law, said computer scientist at the University of South Carolina Martin Styner in an interview with Technology Review.Though Styner participated in this particular experiment, he's now considering having his name removed from the paper.