human breast cancer

They Die by the Score

No creatures make more sacrifices for science—albeit involuntarily—than the mice and rats of lab research. Some 30 million are used each year in the U.S. alone.

Reasons: They’re small and easily bred, and 99 percent of mouse genes (and likely rat genes too) correspond to human ones. Here, recent rodent-based research.

†Fighting AIDS and breast cancerInvestigators at UCSF made a mouse version of HIV, and a U. Wisconsin team created the first “knockout” rat; it was stripped of a gene that curbs human breast cancer.
†Extending the human life spanThe Methuselah Mouse Prize promises $10 million for rejuvenating an old mouse so that it lives five years instead of three.

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Homage

They die by the score.

No creatures make more sacrifices for science -- albeit involuntarily -- than the mice and rats of lab research. Some 30 million are used each year in the U.S. alone. Reasons: They're small and easily bred, and 99 percent of mouse genes (and likely rat genes too) correspond to human ones. Here, recent rodent-based research.



Fighting AIDS and breast cancer
Investigators at UCSF made a mouse version of HIV, and a U. Wisconsin team created the
first "knockout" rat; it was stripped of a gene that curbs human breast cancer.



Extending the human life span

[ Read Full Story ]


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