For two years Scientist Anthony Chan created genetically modified transgender monkeys. In his experiment, he found that 3 out of the 5 monkeys developed Huntington Disease. The symptoms were so severe the monkeys has to be killed within the month of having the disease. Chan is hoping the
primates will be the future models instead of mice. Chan believes that primates will accelerate basic research in neuroscience. This will help researchers mad and text the complex neural circuits underlying the behavior that cannot be found in simpler organisms. Monkeys are already superior to mice since they can replicate disorders easier in monkeys than mice like autism, Alzheimer, and schizophrenia. Mice also have failed to fully show how drugs will actually effect human beings. Mice however are cheaper and easier to obtain. They also show signs faster for researchers to observe.
Its been known that humans and primates can be compared because they carry similar traits. Now the idea of using primates to conduct neuroscience experiments is interesting and exciting. The use of primates could help researchers better understand disorders and diseases who do not have cures - just yet.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=precision-gene-editing-paves-way-for-transgenic-monkeys
This is very interesting in opening up monkeys to more research which is human related. If it is successful, many solutions should be able to be found.
ReplyDeleteI'm not so sure if monkeys are the way to go. Honestly the best way to research the human mind is by using humans. There's an abundance of them on this planet and there's going to be protest against using both animals or humans, so might as well use the one that will lead to the most useful results.
ReplyDeleteThis would be really interesting to see put int action. However, I worry that there may be a lot of debate regarding the morality of using them.
ReplyDeleteI believe that these monkeys were born for the purpose of being studied. In essence, this is similar to cats being skinned for anatomy classes. I don't think there is a difference, except for the abundance in cats versus monkeys.
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