IF IT’S monkeys today, will it be humans tomorrow? That was the question
posed after the birth of ANDi, the genetically engineered rhesus monkey.
The answer, if we have to rely on the methods used to create ANDi, is that it
won’t be any time soon. There are just too many uncertainties.
For starters, using retroviruses to add genes is unpredictable. ANDi was
given the gene for a green fluorescent protein, but he doesn’t glow because the
gene isn’t working. It may switch on when ANDi is older, but who wants to stitch
genes into humans if they don’t work?…
