SoylentNews

Human Brain Genes Given to Monkeys

posted by martyb on Thursday April 11 2019, @06:36PM   
from the typing-out-that-encyclopedia-just-got-quicker dept.

RandomFactor writes:

As described in a report in Bejing's National Science Review journal, and covered by China Daily and MIT Technology Review, scientists have created five transgenic monkeys with extra copies of a human gene believed to play a role in human's intelligence.

“This was the first attempt to understand the evolution of human cognition using a transgenic monkey model,” says Bing Su, the geneticist at the Kunming Institute of Zoology who led the effort.

The modified rhesus macaque monkey's brains took longer to develop (similar to human children's brains) and they also score higher on memory tests although MRIs indicate their brains did not increase in size.

According to geneticist Su:

the small number of animals was a limitation. He says he has a solution, though. He is making more of the monkeys and is also testing new brain evolution genes. One that he has his eye on is SRGAP2C, a DNA variant that arose about two million years ago, just when Australopithecus was ceding the African savannah to early humans. That gene has been dubbed the “humanity switch” and the “missing genetic link” for its likely role in the emergence of human intelligence.

There are ethical and slippery slope issues to consider and the paper was apparently not able to find a publisher in the west.

---

Original Submission

• Re:I've heard something like this before .... Re:I've heard something like this before .... (Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 11 2019, @07:09PM (3 children)

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 11 2019, @07:09PM (#828188)

  I am also tremendously concerned, I believe it was an experiment like this in the 50's that created middle management.

  Parent

  Starting Score:	0		points
  Moderation		+4
  Insightful=1, Funny=3, Total=4
  Extra 'Funny' Modifier		0
  Total Score:		4

• Re:I've heard something like this before .... Re:I've heard something like this before .... (Score: 4, Informative) by RandomFactor on Thursday April 11 2019, @07:44PM (2 children)

  by RandomFactor (3682) on Thursday April 11 2019, @07:44PM (#828215) Journal

  They removed genes in that one. Very different I think.

  --
  В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды

  Parent

  • Re:I've heard something like this before .... (Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday April 11 2019, @08:20PM

    by DannyB (5839) on Thursday April 11 2019, @08:20PM (#828233) Journal

    Middle management needs to keep the jeans on please.

    --
    The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.

    Parent

  • Re:I've heard something like this before .... (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday April 12 2019, @05:40AM

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Friday April 12 2019, @05:40AM (#828499) Journal

    Yeah, that lot only has one helix...

    --
    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...

    Parent