Genome editing research on monkeys raises ethical questions

Researchers are raising ethical questions about a new study that transplanted a human gene into monkeys, first reported by Chinese media and detailed in a MIT Technology Review story. Scientists at China's Kunming Institute of Zoology created monkeys with extra copies of a human gene linked to intelligence. The authors claimed that the experiment did show some of the intended effect — the animals did better on memory tests, for instance. But outside researchers are more concerned about the ethics of such experiments, including that they could lead to more aggressive alterations. “The use of transgenic monkeys to study human genes linked to brain evolution is a very risky road to take,” geneticist James Sikela told Tech Review. But there is no indication that these experiments will stop, as the lead researcher told Tech Review that he plans on studying other human brain evolution genes.