Time: February 15th, 2019
Source: Guangdong-HongKong-Macao Institute of CNS Regeneration

Parkinson's Disease is a neurodegenerative disease, second only to Alzheimer's in the number of patients, and 1 to 2% of people over 65 are affected. It is the most common dyskinesia neurodegenerative disease, characterized by progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, is still incurable.

To develop a new animal model for Parkinson's disease, Li Xiaojiang's research group in JNU Guangdong-HongKong-Macau Institute of CNS Regeneration, in cooperation with Qin Chuan and Liu Yunbo's research group in the Institute of Laboratory Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, targeted the PINK1 gene into rhesus monkey embryos using  CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology. The study was published in Cell Research (IF: 15.393),  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41422-019-0142-y, on Feb.15. The first author is Yang Weili, a post-doctoral researcher at the institute,  and Prof. Li Shihua of Emory University in the United States, collaborated. This research has obtained national key research and development program funding as a sponsored project of the Ministry of Science and Technology.