Glowing Puppies, Monkies, and Babies (and Mice with "Human Ears")

When I read the headlines about glowing green monkeys I immediately recalled other recent news articles about glowing red puppies. There is, of course, a key difference between the two developments.  While the glowing dog story involved gene-splicing, it did not involve a key aspect of the marmoset gene-splicing.  With the marmosets, after the gene-splicing was complete the "recipients" reproduced and actually passed on the new DNA sequence.  This is being considered a significant milestone and rightfully so.  The implications for research and medicine are tremendous (researching treatments for human diseases is just one benefit) and the ethical implications are possibly broader - especially when you wonder how far away human gene-splicing is and the potential effects on future generations.  It is important to keep in mind how quickly science is moving along.  It's moving even more quickly than I thought.  I mistakenly thought back to what I thought was another example of genetic manipulation around 12 years ago.

The mouse with the human ear, however, really had to do with cow cartilage being placed under the skin of a mouse, and not genetic manipulation as such.  More closely related to the marmosets is the story of baby Jessica.

Also just a little over decade ago, scientists successfully selected a gender of a human baby named Jessica.  Some raised concerns over the future of so-called "designer babies."  Even that technique however, was really a technique using selection during artificial insemination.

The marmoset gene-splicing is a completely different twist and, as its terminology suggests, really does involve splicing in DNA from a different species - in this case a jellyfish - and from now on babies of those marmosets can inherit the DNA the same way they can inherit marmoset DNA!