Although humans and mice are separated by 100 million years of evolution, mouse and rat models have continually proven themselves as extremely powerful research tools. Many mouse and rat genetic models can even recapitulate complex and...
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Macrophages are the first line of defense against infections, playing important roles in consuming pathogens and in regulating inflammation. In general, these functions help maintain a healthy organism, keeping infections at bay and promoting...
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During the past several years, there has been an increasing public awareness of mental illness and their societal and health consequences. Eating disorders represent one of the most damaging groups of mental illnesses. Current estimates are...
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Around 20 million years ago, for unknown reasons, wild pigs lost an important metabolic gene known as uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1). In most mammals this gene plays a major role in generating body heat for thermoregulation, and lack of UCP1...
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Last month, the Nobel Foundation recognized Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rosbash, and Michael Young "for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm". This 24-hour "clock" influences many physiological...
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Alzheimer’s disease has gained a lot of attention in the past week or so due to new findings about Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) published in Nature1. ApoE genotype has long been known to be a major risk factor for Alzheimer disease...
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Around 100 million people worldwide have red hair due to the variants of the melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R) gene they carry. In addition to affecting hair color and skin pigmentation, red-hair-color (RHC) MC1R variants also...
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In many ways, regeneration is the ‘holy grail’ of medical research. To be able to completely heal from injuries and to regrow lost organs or tissues is a feat that most mammals are generally not capable of. However, many types of animals...
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In the early days of engineered animal models, simple knockout and transgenic mice were used to examine gene function. Researchers began to dissect the roles of individual genes by studying phenotypes of mice lacking or...
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Optogenenetics refers to a family of techniques which allow modulation of biological processes using light. Over the past 12 years, optogenetics has...
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