Transgenic marmoset poised to become new lab rat

Extract from Nature 27 May: Japanese researchers have created the first transgenic primate, a marmoset, which has passed on its transgene to offspring.  This has created the possibility of using these primates as human disease models.

See Nature 459, 515–516; 2009, and Nature 459, 523–527; 2009).

The researchers at the Central Institute for Experimental Animals in Kawasaki injected viral vectors with green fluorescent protein (GFP) into 91 marmoset embryos, then transferred the 80 healthy transgenic embryos to surrogate mothers. Five offspring were born, all of which expressed the glowing transgene in some features at some point during development. Most exciting, says Sasaki, was the birth in April of a male produced by conventional in vitro fertilization using one of the offspring’s sperm. Since then, two more glowing second-generation marmosets have been born.

Biomedical reseachers have long wanted primate models that can inherit and express introduced genes, as mice can. But passing transgenes to the next generation — the key to making a useful research model — had never been done.

The transgenic marmosets could move more quickly into disease modelling. Her first target is Parkinson’s disease, but she is considering amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Huntington’s.

The question being raised is will marmosets a good enough model to assess human disease?

Transgenic primates such as these are also likely to face challenges from bioethicists and animal-rights groups over creating a colony of animals born with a disease.