Word: miceli
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Based on some intriguing preliminary studies in animals, J. Timothy Lightfoot, a kinesiologist, and his team at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, suggest that genetics may indeed predispose some of us to sloth. Using mice specially bred and selected according to their activity levels, Lightfoot identified 20 different genomic locations that work in tandem to influence their activity levels - specifically, how far the animals will run. Lightfoot's team is the first to identify these genetic areas and the first to figure out that they function in concert. The researchers say the areas they found on the mouse genome...
...Morrow of Massachusetts General Hospital, one of the lead authors of the paper. In fact, Morrow suspects that early intervention programs for children with autism involving intensive instruction in speech and social behavior may work by altering the expression of affected genes. (This idea is supported by research with mice, which has shown that providing a rich, stimulating environment directly affects gene expression in the brain...
Cullen and his team were able to replicate the intricate process using lab mice. They started by identifying the tiniest components of the HSV-1 strain. In its latent stage, HSV-1 produces a single molecular product, called latency-associated transcript RNA, or LAT RNA. Unlike most messenger RNA, LAT RNA doesn't produce proteins, so scientists have never been able to determine LAT RNA's exact function. But by inserting the LAT RNA into mice, Cullen found that it breaks down into even smaller strands called microRNA. Researchers then discovered that it was the microRNA that blocked production...
...Over the past 60 years, scientists have figured out what works best in what models. The vast majority of animal testing [today] is in rodents, either rats or mice. Rodents, particularly mice, have very short life spans, so you can see how a compound would react in a young animal, then in the same geriatric animal, and then in the next-generation animal, all in a time frame that is reasonable. Then if a product or a compound is determined to be safe in a rodent, another species is used. For example, if it's a neurological compound, oftentimes...
...course, science is always making progress. You read a lot about these very special rodents, animals we call "transgenic animals." [That means] if you're studying diabetes, the mice have diabetes, so you can go right to specific disease targets in a much more expeditious way that you could in the old days. In the old days you just hoped they got diabetes. Also, as the scientific community is understanding more and more about the genome, whether it's the human genome or the fruit fly genome, they're better able to identify gene markers, to target them and start...