October can be a month of festivity. Usually birthdays are revered and holidays are celebrated. In the October of 2000, however, an unusual birthday was commemorated. In that month, Andi, a transgenic animal, was born. The reason why his birth should be regarded with great esteem is not only that he was a genetically modified rhesus monkey, but that he is the first. The news was monumental for several reasons; namely, Andi is a close genetic cousin to humans. The experiment was a lengthy one and the outcome is a product well worth the effort on behalf of the scientific and global community. The experiment is a beneficial one, for an understatement is to deem it one of frivolity. Andis genesis marks a new chapter in the history of the planet. The key part in this chapter is the ability of humans to manipulate creation. The issue now is whether Andi is a great destructive force or a conglomeration of human intelligence. In the near future, the world will eventually feel the brunt of an explosion catalyzed by genetic manipulation and Andi is part of a lit fuse. Andi is a backward acronym for inserted DNA that describes the method used by scientists at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center (ORPRC) in Beaverton. The lead scientists Gerald P. Schatten and Anthony W.S. Chan, along with their team, placed copies of the green fluorescent protein (GFP), found in jellyfish, in specialized viri: retroviri. Their main goal was to create a monkey with a new gene introduced in a laboratory, thus a transgenic monkey. The significance of the GFP gene was to provide quick, detectable, and vivid evidence of whether the experiment was successful. These replication-defective retroviri that carried the gene were injected into 224 unfertilized rhesus oocytes. There, the retroviri inserted their genes and the GFP gene into the DNA of the egg cells. Through fertilization via intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)--described in the j...
