First Primate Clones Created Via SCNT Expected to Benefit Disease Research Without Reviving Debate

Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Neuroscience in Shanghai have published details of the first primate clones made by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT).The development is expected to help labs someday feasibly conduct research with customizable populations of genetically uniform monkeys—and follows years in which researchers have retreated from research using primates, a development facilitated in the case of chimpanzees by the NIH. The newborn primate clones a