MONKEYS genetically engineered to get the deadly neurological disease Huntington’s could provide a unique way to test potential treatments because of their cognitive and genetic similarities to humans.
“Monkey models may have a privilege over other animal models,” says Anthony Chan, a biologist at Yerkes National Primate Center in Atlanta, Georgia, whose team engineered five rhesus macaque monkeys to churn out the mutant protein that causes Huntington’s.
Researchers routinely splice human genes in and out of mice to give them diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. But mice are of limited use when investigating brain diseases such as Huntington’s: people who…
