ANDi, the world's first GM monkey

LONDON, JAN. 12. Scientists have created the world's first genetically-modified monkey, a baby rhesus called ANDi. The feat could hasten the development of new treatments for a range of diseases, from diabetes and breast cancer to Parkinson's and HIV. ``It's a special step,'' said the head of the American team, Prof. Gerald Schatten. ``We're at an extraordinary moment in the history of humans.''

But anti-vivisectionists fear that ANDi, born on October 2 last year, will herald a surge in experiments on monkeys. They condemned the research as ``abhorrent'' and accused Prof. Schatten of ``playing God.'' The work also raises the issue of whether similar techniques could be used to create GM humans. ``ANDi is robust and plays normally with his two room-mates,'' said Prof. Schatten of the Oregon Regional Primate Research Centre at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, who reports the details in Science, published on Fridays.

ANDi - ``inserted DNA'' spelt backwards - received an extra marker gene, from a jellyfish, while he was still an unfertilised egg, making him the world's first genetically modified non-human primate.

The technique could pave the way for the creation of laboratory monkeys that carry human genes, offering the opportunity for medical researchers to make more realistic models of human disease.

``We could just as easily introduce, for example, an Alzheimer's gene, to accelerate the development of a vaccine for that disease,'' said Prof. Schatten.

- Telegraph Group Limited, London, 2001.

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