Cloning Monkeys

Author
Discussion

AudiMan9000

Original Poster:

761 posts

55 months

Tuesday 16th January
quotequote all
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-679...

This was a difficult read, and surprising as I would have thought this was illegal/unethical given the animals are so closely related to humans.

Any views?

Jaska

755 posts

149 months

Tuesday 16th January
quotequote all
I work in drug development - as the article says there is no better way to test something than with a perfect duplicate. Even in humans the best we have is to do trials on identical twins.

Athough it arguably isn't good per say to clone stuff, statistically making 15 of these cloned monkeys could save us testing something on 300 non cloned monkeys, and in a fair amount of animal studies you kill the animal at the end.

Obviously I don't know how many monkeys will die to make 15 cloned monkeys etc etc so it's all nicely ethically a grey area and in China that almost always makes something OK to do biggrin

N. B. And of course all countries have their own ethics boards, drug approval requirements, research bodies etc and all of them have different rules. I know of a fair few drugs that are approved for use in Scotland but not in England for example despite it all going through the NHS they have different approval teams

TwigtheWonderkid

44,678 posts

157 months

Tuesday 16th January
quotequote all
AudiMan9000 said:
given the animals are so closely related to humans.
PH creationist contingent arriving in 3,2,1.........

ApOrbital

10,155 posts

125 months

Wednesday 17th January
quotequote all
Where's Your Head At.

shtu

3,712 posts

153 months

Wednesday 17th January
quotequote all
ApOrbital said:
Where's Your Head At.
Excellent work.

matrignano

4,610 posts

217 months

Wednesday 17th January
quotequote all
What happened to Dolly the sheep?

fasimew

417 posts

12 months

Wednesday 17th January
quotequote all
It died of old age I believe. Although it was relatively young, the base material was an old sheep, and hence the new sheep was biologically the same age.

dudleybloke

20,479 posts

193 months

Wednesday 17th January
quotequote all
But do they know which one is the clone?
Never ends well if they do.

SpudLink

6,446 posts

199 months

Wednesday 17th January
quotequote all
dudleybloke said:
But do they know which one is the clone?
Never ends well if they do.
hehe

Just ask the Mauler twins.

matrignano

4,610 posts

217 months

Wednesday 17th January
quotequote all
fasimew said:
It died of old age I believe. Although it was relatively young, the base material was an old sheep, and hence the new sheep was biologically the same age.
Crazy how much media attention Dolly generated, I was relatively young but still remember the huge debates around it.

Now almost 30 years later, I've never heard or read of any advancements in cloning or particular commercial or research uses?

200bhp

5,682 posts

226 months

Wednesday 17th January
quotequote all
Jaska said:
I know of a fair few drugs that are approved for use in Scotland but not in England for example despite it all going through the NHS they have different approval teams
Is that simply an indication of how easily the Scotts are persuaded with bribes from the drug companies?

ScotHill

3,530 posts

116 months

Wednesday 17th January
quotequote all
fasimew said:
It died of old age I believe. Although it was relatively young, the base material was an old sheep, and hence the new sheep was biologically the same age.
Not sure I get that - physically her cells were as old as a normal sheep that was born from an embryo, do you mean that the source DNA had decayed because it was from an older sheep? DNA doesn't store the host's 'age' in it, as such.

SpudLink

6,446 posts

199 months

Wednesday 17th January
quotequote all
ScotHill said:
fasimew said:
It died of old age I believe. Although it was relatively young, the base material was an old sheep, and hence the new sheep was biologically the same age.
Not sure I get that - physically her cells were as old as a normal sheep that was born from an embryo, do you mean that the source DNA had decayed because it was from an older sheep? DNA doesn't store the host's 'age' in it, as such.
I think it was cancer, not old age. Apparently other sheep from the original flock also had the same cancer. Half the expected life span, but not evidence it was related to cloning.

Jinx

11,611 posts

267 months

Wednesday 17th January
quotequote all
Jaska said:
I work in drug development - as the article says there is no better way to test something than with a perfect duplicate. Even in humans the best we have is to do trials on identical twins.

Athough it arguably isn't good per say to clone stuff, statistically making 15 of these cloned monkeys could save us testing something on 300 non cloned monkeys, and in a fair amount of animal studies you kill the animal at the end.

Obviously I don't know how many monkeys will die to make 15 cloned monkeys etc etc so it's all nicely ethically a grey area and in China that almost always makes something OK to do biggrin

N. B. And of course all countries have their own ethics boards, drug approval requirements, research bodies etc and all of them have different rules. I know of a fair few drugs that are approved for use in Scotland but not in England for example despite it all going through the NHS they have different approval teams
This is China - I'm sure nothing will go to waste......

Flumpo

4,024 posts

80 months

Wednesday 17th January
quotequote all
Jaska said:
I work in drug development - as the article says there is no better way to test something than with a perfect duplicate. Even in humans the best we have is to do trials on identical twins.

Athough it arguably isn't good per say to clone stuff, statistically making 15 of these cloned monkeys could save us testing something on 300 non cloned monkeys, and in a fair amount of animal studies you kill the animal at the end.

Obviously I don't know how many monkeys will die to make 15 cloned monkeys etc etc so it's all nicely ethically a grey area and in China that almost always makes something OK to do biggrin

N. B. And of course all countries have their own ethics boards, drug approval requirements, research bodies etc and all of them have different rules. I know of a fair few drugs that are approved for use in Scotland but not in England for example despite it all going through the NHS they have different approval teams
Why is it beneficial to test on cloned monkeys or identical human twins. Wouldn’t it be more beneficial to test a drug on a range of people with different genetics, sizes, diets or lifestyles. Wouldnt that give you far better data and understanding of how it would work in the real world?

Genuinely interested.

Skeptisk

8,250 posts

116 months

Thursday 18th January
quotequote all
Lots of animals have been cloned

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-15097-7

In the US used to clone pets.

hotchy

4,593 posts

133 months

Thursday 18th January
quotequote all
Flumpo said:
Jaska said:
I work in drug development - as the article says there is no better way to test something than with a perfect duplicate. Even in humans the best we have is to do trials on identical twins.

Athough it arguably isn't good per say to clone stuff, statistically making 15 of these cloned monkeys could save us testing something on 300 non cloned monkeys, and in a fair amount of animal studies you kill the animal at the end.

Obviously I don't know how many monkeys will die to make 15 cloned monkeys etc etc so it's all nicely ethically a grey area and in China that almost always makes something OK to do biggrin

N. B. And of course all countries have their own ethics boards, drug approval requirements, research bodies etc and all of them have different rules. I know of a fair few drugs that are approved for use in Scotland but not in England for example despite it all going through the NHS they have different approval teams
Why is it beneficial to test on cloned monkeys or identical human twins. Wouldn’t it be more beneficial to test a drug on a range of people with different genetics, sizes, diets or lifestyles. Wouldnt that give you far better data and understanding of how it would work in the real world?

Genuinely interested.
You can infect monkey A and B with corona. The same identical monkey.

Monkey A gets vacinne monkey B gets nothing.
A gets noticeably better quick/doesn't get infected etc while B gets sick or dies etc. Then you know it was the vaccine and not the broad range of different immune systems.

We now know A 100% works and it cant be any other thing such as different immune systems. So plan towards human trials etc.

PlywoodPascal

5,401 posts

28 months

Thursday 18th January
quotequote all
ScotHill said:
fasimew said:
It died of old age I believe. Although it was relatively young, the base material was an old sheep, and hence the new sheep was biologically the same age.
Not sure I get that - physically her cells were as old as a normal sheep that was born from an embryo, do you mean that the source DNA had decayed because it was from an older sheep? DNA doesn't store the host's 'age' in it, as such.
Dolly the sheep was cloned by placing a nucleus of a cell from one sheep into cell(s) from another sheep that had had their nuclei removed.

The nucleus contains chromosomes on which the genes are located. At the ‘ends’ of chromosomes there are sequences of DNA called telomeres which are linked to ages and which get shorter each time a cell divides.

Those shortened telomeres from the living ‘donor’ sheep would have been ‘carried through’ into the clone,

Flumpo

4,024 posts

80 months

Thursday 18th January
quotequote all
hotchy said:
Flumpo said:
Jaska said:
I work in drug development - as the article says there is no better way to test something than with a perfect duplicate. Even in humans the best we have is to do trials on identical twins.

Athough it arguably isn't good per say to clone stuff, statistically making 15 of these cloned monkeys could save us testing something on 300 non cloned monkeys, and in a fair amount of animal studies you kill the animal at the end.

Obviously I don't know how many monkeys will die to make 15 cloned monkeys etc etc so it's all nicely ethically a grey area and in China that almost always makes something OK to do biggrin

N. B. And of course all countries have their own ethics boards, drug approval requirements, research bodies etc and all of them have different rules. I know of a fair few drugs that are approved for use in Scotland but not in England for example despite it all going through the NHS they have different approval teams
Why is it beneficial to test on cloned monkeys or identical human twins. Wouldn’t it be more beneficial to test a drug on a range of people with different genetics, sizes, diets or lifestyles. Wouldnt that give you far better data and understanding of how it would work in the real world?

Genuinely interested.
You can infect monkey A and B with corona. The same identical monkey.

Monkey A gets vacinne monkey B gets nothing.
A gets noticeably better quick/doesn't get infected etc while B gets sick or dies etc. Then you know it was the vaccine and not the broad range of different immune systems.

We now know A 100% works and it cant be any other thing such as different immune systems. So plan towards human trials etc.
Understood, thank you!

Murph7355

38,935 posts

263 months

Thursday 18th January
quotequote all
We seem to have been doing this for years in SW1a.

But it also means we are closer to being able to see if monkeys really could write Shakespeare. Science at its finest.