Three blind mice! Three blind mice!
Genetically modified mice are incredibly useful tools in genetic research.
I happened to read up on a paper regarding the study of stem cells and their integration into damaged retina tissue in mice eyes. Special rd1 mice that happened to have the gene responsible for the degradation of photoreceptor cells in the mice eyes. How useful!
The paper titled “Neural differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells in vitro and after transplantation into eyes of mutant mice with rapid retinal degeneration.” by Jason S. Meyera, Martin L. Katzb, Joel A. Maruniaka and Mark D. Kirka.
A great experiment with good results that demonstrated neuralization of the embryonic stem cells in vitro and confirmed integration of the cells in vivo.
Other studies with mice eyes hit the news shortly after the week I read this paper for the first time. Most of the research shows promising results for eye damage repair. Who knows…
Note: 3 blind mice would actually cost you a couple bucks more than 3 normal mice. (unless you found 3 naturally blind mice… then they’d cost the same, I guess).
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It makes sense they would be more expensive. There aren’t as many of these type of guys around these days. I guess they’re all in media now.