Okay, let’s get one thing out of the way first: Monkeys are inherently funny. We love monkeys. The sillier the better. So. Monkeys good. Genetically enhanced monkeys? Even better. Giant genetically enhanced monkeys? Can’t be topped.
Unfortunately, I know we’re not going to talk about giant genetically enhanced monkeys. Just the plain vanilla genetically enhanced monkeys. That glow green under a special light. How cool is that?
Here’s a quick look at the marmosets.
See? Cool.
Japanese researchers have genetically engineered monkeys whose hair roots, skin and blood glow green under a special light, and who have passed on their traits to their offspring, the first time this has been achieved in a primate.
They spliced a jellyfish gene into common marmosets, and said on Wednesday they hope to use their colony of glowing animals to study human Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS.
Erika Sasaki and Hideyuki Okano of the Keio University School of Medicine in Japan used a virus to carry the gene for green fluorescent protein into monkey embryos, which were implanted into a female monkey, and four out of five were born with the gene throughout their bodies.
One fathered a healthy baby that also carried the new genes, they reported in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature.
The protein glows under blue and ultraviolet light, allowing researchers to illuminate tumor cells, trace toxins and to monitor genes as they turn on and off.
Okay, yeah, we’re talking a medical advancement that could mean a better life for a lot of people. Almost as important, though, would be this: GREEN MONKEYS!
Go, science!
Now if only we could get something like this approved for humans. I mean, imagine kids getting these sorts of genes. You wouldn’t have to turn on the light to find them outside at night, just flash a little ultraviolet at them, no need to disturb the neighbors. Oh, yeah, now we’re talking.
– Richard
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