Monkey cloned on the 113th attempt is first to ever survive

A MONKEY has been successfully cloned by Chinese scientists and, in a world first, has so far lived for two years.

Researchers have cloned primates before using the same method which created Dolly the sheep in 1996 but all either died before or shortly after birth.

However, a modified technique designed to create a stronger placenta has seen a cloned rhesus monkey live healthily for more than two years.

Only one birth was successful, however, from a total of 113 attempts. The animal has been labelled “Retro”.

The process, called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), involves extracting genetic information from a standard cell and implanting it into an egg from another monkey that has had its own genetic material sucked out.

Other species have been cloned using this process but in primates it has a success rate as low as 1 per cent.

A step was added which involves replacing a faulty layer of cells surrounding the growing embryo. This layer is often the wrong shape and too small in clones, but an update to the process saw the scientists cut the cloned embryo’s inner cells cut out and put inside the IVF’S healthier layers.

“Remarkably, using this approach, we successfully achieved the live birth of a healthy [cloned] rhesus monkey that has survived for over two years,” the scientists said in their paper, published in Nature Communications.

They added that the strategy “holds great promise” for improving the dismal success rate of cloning.

The scientists also believe the process of snipping out cells in an early-stage embryo and injecting them into a healthier covering could help people struggling to conceive via IVF.

Cloning primates this way is prohibited in Europe on ethical grounds, but legal in China.