Scientists develop a monkey with luminous green eyes and fingers

The researchers manipulated cells from an embryo by injecting them with genetically diverse stem cells. The result is a monkey with glowing green fingers and eyes.

In the laboratory, scientists added glowing stem cells to four- to five-day-old embryos. Their goal was to observe whether these cells would spread and multiply during fetal development. And that’s exactly what happened. Glowing stem cells contributed significantly to the formation of various tissues, from 21% to 92%.

The discovery, published today in the scientific journal Cell, opens the door to using chimera monkeys to study human diseases and develop treatments, says stem cell biologist Miguel Esteban of the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Guangzhou, who co-authored it. the study.

Unfortunately, the monkey had to be euthanized when it was just 10 days old due to hypothermia and breathing difficulties, underscoring the need to further improve this approach and raising ethical concerns, the researchers said.