Do we need this: Glowing Cats

[swords]

I've read the article several times, I still don't understand how glowing cats will help cure disease

http://www.myembarq.com/news/news_reader.php?storyid=15664522&feedid=176

 

[DrWurm]

Where's D_Muscipula? He's gonna lol

 

[Est]

Great things sometimes have bizarre origins or tangents.
It's less about the results of these particular experiments and more about the implications of the processes involved.

And who doesn't want a glowing cat?

 

[b.t.]

I was half expecting to see a photo of a cat set on fire by somebody and allowed to run through the neighborhood.... Ah well, I guess half a surprise is better than no surprise!

 

[Mokele]

It's actually a common experimental technigue: if you want to see where a gene is expressed, just implant a gene for Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) right next to it, and then watch for where lights up. In this case, I guess it just got expressed in the skin.

Mokele

 

[elgecko]

Yes.

It will make them easier to see at night to run them down when they are in the road.





Just kidding. I have 4 cats. None of them glow.

 

[Not a Number]

Just kidding. I have 4 cats. None of them glow.

Maybe if you lived closer to Harrisburg, PA they might glow.

 

[D_muscipula]

Where's D_Muscipula? He's gonna lol

hahaha I saw it on the news last night and mentioned it before this thread was posted

 

[Pyro]

Mokele covered it, you want to track aberrant expression of a disease gene then pop the tag on it and look for it. And since cats and humans share a number of genes you can look at those shared genes that have similar disease traits.

What boggled me about it is that they went and did it in cats when we have had it in non-human primates for at least 4 years. Sort of seems a step back to me.

 

[FlytrapGurl]

Whaaaaat the [bleep].