According to a study published in Beijing-based National Science Review, Chinese scientists have implanted human brain genes into monkeys, in a study on evolution of human intelligence.
About:
Bodies involved: The Study was conducted by researchers at the Kunming Institute of Zoology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with researchers at the University of North Carolina, U.S.
Experiment: Researchers inserted human versions of MCPH1 gene into 11 rhesus monkeys.
Findings: Monkeys’ brains — like those of humans — took longer to develop, and the animals performed better in tests of short-term memory as well as reaction time compared to wild monkeys. However, the monkeys did not grow bigger brains than the control group.
Ethical issues:
The test has fuelled medical ethics debates on genetically modifying primates and has drawn comparisons with dystopian sci-fi Planet of the Apes.
China was the first country to create monkeys altered with the gene-editing tool CRISPR, and this January a Chinese institute announced it had produced a half-dozen clones of a monkey with a severe mental disturbance.
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