A “healthy” rhesus monkey cloned in China has survived for more than two years and is providing “valuable insights” into the scientific process, according to researchers.

Scientists in China used a modified version of the same technique that was used to create Dolly the sheep, the world’s first cloned mammal.

Out of the 113 cloned embryos, 11 were implanted into surrogate monkeys, but only one survived.

Named ReTro, the male rhesus monkey was born following a gestation period of 157 days.

The team said that although the success rate of producing viable and healthy clones is low – less than 1% in this instance – it advances the understanding of the mechanisms involved in primate cloning.

  • @[email protected]
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    1810 months ago

    I can’t say I know a lot about cloning. But isn’t it already an established thing? Aren’t people cloning their favourite pets and polo horses already? What’s the main difference with this older method, why bother with it?

    • @WeeSheep
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      810 months ago

      They are trying a different method of cloning to determine if it’s better than what was used with dolly the sheep.

  • AutoTL;DRB
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    410 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    A “healthy” rhesus monkey cloned in China has survived for more than two years and is providing “valuable insights” into the scientific process, according to researchers.

    Scientists in China used a modified version of the same technique that was used to create Dolly the sheep, the world’s first cloned mammal.

    Commenting on the findings, Dr Lluis Montoliu, a researcher at the National Centre for Biotechnology in Spain, who was not involved in the study, said: “Both the cloning of crab-eating macaques and rhesus monkeys demonstrate two things.

    It was the first time scientists had managed to clone a mammal from an adult cell, taken from the udder of a Finn Dorset sheep.

    The researchers said this approach proved to be more successful, leading to a healthy male rhesus monkey, which has now survived for more than two years.

    Writing in the journal Nature Communications, the authors said: “These discoveries provide valuable insights into the reprogramming mechanism of monkey SCNT and introduce a promising strategy for primate cloning.”


    The original article contains 598 words, the summary contains 167 words. Saved 72%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • @[email protected]
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    110 months ago

    Ethical quarries aside, would the clone make the same decisions as the original given the same circumstances? Could this be a test to see if we have free will or just running biological programming?

    Would be an interesting test.

    • @cynar
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      710 months ago

      We have that test, in the form of identical twins. They happen when a single embryo splits into 2. The 2 babies are generically identical. They are also often raised in almost exactly the same conditions, which makes their study even more useful.

  • @MyDogLovesMe
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    -110 months ago

    What about the humans that were cloned? You know, the ones you kept secret? How are they doing?

    Or is this the ‘soft tell’ that it’s going well?

    • @[email protected]
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      310 months ago

      Keriger was to marry 宮住 美津子 but Lana had to fuck that up so not so well I guess.

    • @CinnerB
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      210 months ago

      I’m not sure why you’re downvoted. It’s China. If they can do it, you know they are. But the question is whether they can. I imagine cloning sheep and small monkeys are much easier than cloning humans.