Technabob » genetics

Female Mice Attracted to Same Sex After Genetic Modification

Lambert Varias — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 11:41:09 +0000

According to the Telegraph, a remarkable experiment conducted at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Daejon, South Korea resulted in female mice “to reject the advances of their male counterparts and attempt to mate with fellow females.” The modification involved deleting something called the FucM gene while the mice were still embryos. The FucM gene is said to limit the amount of oestrogen in the brain of the mice.

While this is fairly convincing proof that sexual preference is genetic in mice, the scientists are keen to stress that this doesn’t necessarily mean that the same can be said for humans. Scientists are not sure whether oestrogens have the same effect on the human brain, and Professor Chankyu Park, who headed the experiment, knows that answering that question will prove to be difficult, especially since it’s quite hard to find people willing to become test subjects.

[via The Telegraph]

Lab Chops: Scientists Create Artificial Pork

Lambert Varias — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:55:35 +0000

Scientists in the Netherlands managed to create artificial meat using muscle cells extracted from a live pig combined with “a broth of other animal products”, which allowed the muscle cells to multiply and form muscle tissue. Yummy. But the scientists still have quite a ways to go from producing bacon in a petri dish.

The artificial meat is described as “soggy pork”: “What we have at the moment is rather like wasted muscle tissue. We need to find ways of improving it by training it and stretching it, but we will get there”, says Mark Post, professor of physiology at Eindhoven University.

Exercising pig muscles when they’re not attached to the rest of the pig? – Quite a stumper indeed. I don’t know how far this experiment is going to go, but if it succeeds this is going to cause drastic changes worldwide. Meat may become cheaper, but at the same time a lot of people could lose their jobs if we don’t need to rely on live animals for meat. Would you eat lab meat?

pic from Room Candy

[via Telegraph via The Presurfer]

Genetically Engineered Pigs Could be Harvested for Human Organ Transplants – Still No Spiderpig

Lambert Varias — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:42:31 +0000

Sorry Homer. But what’s important is that a group of Korean scientists have successfully produced a genetically engineered pig whose organs could be compatible with the human body. Chung Nam University’s Jin Dong-il and local bio-tech firm Mgen claim that their cloned piglet contains a protein called fas ligand (FasL), which helps regulate our immune system. According to Fareastgizmos, “organs from FasL-expressing pigs could have a lesser risk of rejection when transplanted into humans.”

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the goal of experiments like this is to one day have an abundant (and hopefully cheap) supply of organs. Some people may not approve of this, but I’d rather breed donor animals than donor humans. Hopefully scientists will have breakthroughs with stem cells so we won’t have to resort to building organ farms.

Study on Salamanders May Hold Key to Human Tissue Regeneration – or a Monster.

Lambert Varias — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:03:39 +0000

In a study published in Nature magazine, a group of scientists revealed that human cells may be induced to regenerate appendages in the same way that salamanders do. Meaning we can also grow salamander limbs. Kidding.

Apparently the cells on the stumps of a salamander “only” need to revert to a “less mature” state instead of a day 1 embryonic state to differentiate and turn into the cells that will make up the new limb. Dr. Elly Tanaka, one of the biologists behind the study, said that this bodes well for us, because it means that tissue regeneration is much more probable than previously thought. But this is future-future tech, and further studies are needed before any human tests will be performed. I recommend that Dr. Tanaka and her colleagues read this document, published in 1963, so that we may avoid having to deal with the likes of this:

*shivers* Dr. Tanaka, please conduct research on radioactive spiders as well. It’ll be fun I promise.

[via Wired via Neatorama]