Chinese researchers used CRISPR technology to genetically edit macaque monkey embryos in order to create five monkeys with severe sleeping disorders by removing BMAL1, a gene important for circadian regulation. They then chose the monkey of the five with the most severe symptoms to clone as a model to use for future tests on monkeys with these disorders. The idea behind this research was to create a template to create clone monkeys with the disease to run tests on rather than the real monkeys themselves.
A large issue with this experiment was the ethics behind it. While the end result is to reduce the number of monkeys used in research experiments. According to the study, the disorder in the monkeys resulted in not only lack of sleep but also changes in blood hormones, increased anxiety and depression, and even “schizophrenia-like” behavior. Bioethicist Carolyn Neuhaus thinks the study is morally wrong because the monkeys are used as tools, and the research’s success is based on their suffering.
Genes
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