Hybrid rice, cloned monkeys and mythical dragons

In January this year, Chinese scientists announced the cloning of five monkeys from a gene-edited macaque with circadian rhythm disorders. It was the first time multiple monkeys had been cloned from a gene-edited monkey for biomedical research. The cloned monkeys were born at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Neuroscience in Shanghai.

Bai Chunli, the academy's president, said the idea of obtaining core technologies and improving China's innovative capacity has been one of the key missions for the academy, which is also celebrating its 70th anniversary this year.