The Scientist | Japanese researchers have successfully generated the world's first transgenic primates capable of passing on a foreign gene to their offspring. The feat, reported in today's (May 28) issue of Nature, should pave the way for more sophisticated models of human disease, though the monkey models still have many hurdles to overcome."This is the first time that we actually can see a transgene integrated into every tissue including the germline [in a primate] and that the transgene has been passed on to the next generation," Shoukhrat Mitalipov, a developmental biologist at the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC) in Beaverton who wrote an accompanying commentary to the study, told The Scientist.
