World first: Japanese scientists create transgenic monkeys
Found on PhysOrg on Tuesday, 26 May 2009
In a controversial achievement, Japanese scientists announced on Wednesday they had created the world's first transgenic primates, breeding monkeys with a gene that made the animals' skin glow a fluorescent green.
The gene codes for green fluorescent protein (GFP), a substance that was originally isolated from a jellyfish and is now commonly used as a biotech marker.
"There's also a very important ethical debate, firstly about the animals themselves and secondly about what this might lead to in the future, whether it might be ethically justified to genetically engineer humans."
In Japan, you don't see ninja monkeys at nigh... no, wait... Clearly they fail as an army of evil secret ninja monkeys of the evil scientist overlord. Nevertheless, it sounds neat to have glowing monkeys. Ok, they only glow under UV light, but still...