Not exactly. But last month scientists announced that monkeys had passed genetic modifications to their offspring for the first time.

Planet of the Apes it is not; the genetic modifications merely cause the monkeys to glow green under fluorescent light.

But it is another step toward the world of Gattaca: we have achieved heritable modifications with primates, and the “same techniques would be used on chimps or other primates even closer to humans or to try to endow people with desirable genetic traits,” the article noted.

Source: Rob Stein, “Monkeys first to inherit genetic modifications,” SFGate.com, May 28, 2009. Image copyright FutureAtlas.com — usable with link and attribution