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Before gene-edited babies, how Chinese scientists created super-strong dogs … and autistic monkeys
- Some researchers tinkered with the genes of animals so they would have conditions seen in humans they wished to study or find cures for
- Others gave animals potentially useful attributes, such as dogs with bigger muscles that could run faster
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Following Chinese scientist He Jiankui’s claim this week to have created the world’s first genetically edited babies – twin girls Nana and Lulu – the use of the technology that made this possible has come under international scrutiny.
Here are some of the other ways Chinese scientists have used CRISPR-Cas9 (CRISPR being short for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) to edit genomes:
What is gene editing? Who’s doing it? And is it right?
1. World’s first cloned dog
Last year, Chinese scientists claimed to be the first in the world to clone a dog using CRISPR-Cas9.
The dog in question is a beagle named Longlong, cloned from another dog, Apple. Since Apple’s genes were modified to develop a blood-clotting disorder, Longlong also inherited the disease.
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