The mouse that shook the world

"It can run for hours at 20 metres per minute without getting tired. It lives longer, has more sex, and eats more without gaining weight. Could the science that created this supermouse be applied to humans?"


A very interesting article a colleague sent around this morning. Basically, scientist altered a gene sequence in mice that control glucose metabolism (a gene that we humans have as well!), thereby enabling physical activities to become prolonged. This is able to be accomplished by reducing the amount, or rate, of lactic acid buildup in muscles.

The article also mentions that these mice eat twice as much and weigh half of what others mice weigh, and live much longer. This is interesting considering that there is a theory out there stating that a low caloric diet increases longevity - the rationale behind the theory is based on viewing our bodies as biological systems susceptible to physical laws (i.e. entropy), and the less you put into the system, the less that becomes disarrayed.

There is no doubt that genetic engineering has been going on for a while, and our own human curiosity has driven us to mix and match genes from different animals, often times leading to interesting outcomes.


From the article, here's a short list of what has been done so far in this space:

The Beltsville pig

An early experiment involving the insertion of a gene for human growth hormone into pigs to make them grow faster. They suffered severe bone and joint problems and could not walk properly without pain.

Oncomouse

Created by scientists at Harvard. Engineered to develop cancer, it enabled researchers to use it as a model of the disease. It was involved in one of the earliest patent applications on an animal.

Knock-out mice

Probably the most common use of genetically modified animals. The mice have a gene modified or destroyed so that scientists can study the outcome. Has created a revolution in the understanding of mammalian genes.

Spider-silk goats

Spider-silk protein gene is inserted into goats to extract the substance from their milk. The silk is stronger than steel, so could be used in industry.

Spinach pigs

Japanese scientists have created pigs with an added gene from spinach. They say it cuts fat – making them healthier to eat.

Humanised cattle

A range of experiments have tried to introduce important human genes into cattle so that pharmaceutical proteins can be extracted from their milk.

The green pig

Scientists are trying to introduce a bacterial gene into pigs that will make their faeces less toxic, cutting farm pollution.



Although the article does briefly mention that pharmaceutical companies may use this type of information to help less-than-normal patients, but that it would ultimately be unethical to do things like this in humans. My opinion is split on the matter, but here are some pros and cons for genetic engineering in humans.

Pros:
1. Increases our knowledge of gene-gene interactions, potentially leading to novel therapeutics
2. Increases a persons ability to be more fit, or to be pre-determined to be more fit/healthy

Cons:
1. We are not aware of the long term implications of altering gene sequences. For example, although we remove certain parts or add certain sequences, we have no idea what the genetic drift consequences can be. Removing/altering 'junk DNA,' when we are not fully sure as to what its role is, seems a little scary.

One thing is for sure, our ethics/morality/etc. will not prevent such experimentation from occurring, best to do it openly.