[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Sign-in] [Mail] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
|
Science/Tech See other Science/Tech Articles Title: Nude or glowing? These critters are made to order Nude or glowing? These critters are made to order IF IT WAS a hotel, it would rate five stars. Nestling on 18 hectares of former farmland outside Moss Vale, it cost $20 million to build, and when fully operational next year it will have 30 staff employed to meet every need of its guests. However the high-tech building is no holiday retreat. Owned by the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, the Australian BioResources centre will eventually be home to about 45,000 mice destined for advanced medical research. Mice, says Professor John Shine, the Garvan executive director, remain "essential for all modern medical research" including efforts to cure cancer, diabetes, brain disorders, auto-immune and inflammatory conditions, osteoporosis and heart disease. The new breeding centre will not provide research rodents only for the Garvan, but for St Vincent's Hospital, the universities of NSW, Newcastle and Western Sydney, the Children's Cancer Institute Australia, and the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute. Other institutions are expected to sign up. The centre's director, veterinarian Jenny Kingham, estimates up to 95 per cent of the mice to be raised under her care would be genetically modified, with various genes switched off, or new genes inserted and activated, to provide specific models needed for medical research. For example, "lines" of mice will be raised with genes for breast cancer and diabetes research. "The need for genetically modified mice is expanding after the mapping of the mouse genome," Kingham says. She expects eventually to be raising hundreds of genetically modified lines. "Most of the mice look completely normal, black and brown or white mice, [however] we do have some that glow under ultra-violet light" thanks to the addition of a fluorescent-green protein. There are also naturally hairless "nude mice". The centre's double-skinned core pavilion holds 11 plastic tent-like "bio-bubbles". By the end of next year each will house racks of transparent cages, stacked one on top of another like high-rise apartments. Each shoebox-sized cage will hold an adult male and female mouse that will breed litters of genetically modified pups. To ensure scientists know what they will get when ordering mice, the accommodation is tightly controlled to keep out bacteria and viruses that could ruin experiments. Seemingly pristine country air is not considered pure enough to be pumped into mouse quarters. "Scrubbers" operate around the clock, removing any contamination before the air-conditioning delivers the air to the mice. They drink Moss Vale's town water, but it too is specially filtered. Food pellets are irradiated to kill bacteria, and bedding, made from rice hulls and changed weekly, is sterilised in autoclaves. The temperature is set at 21 degrees, "plus or minus two degrees", Kingham says. Humidity, and even the daylight, are tightly controlled, with the mice enjoying 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness daily. All keepers, or "bio-technicians", wear full hospital-style blue gowns, caps and gloves. "It is like a hotel. The mice are very well cared for," Kingham says. "They are very, very clean. None of our mice would have the diseases common in pet mice or wild mice. We have some mice so immuno-deficient they have to be kept in a sterile environment or else they wouldn't survive." If lines are no longer needed embryos can be frozen, usually at the two-cell stage, to ensure special lines will be available for future use. Each rodent has its own computer record, detailing every aspect of its life, stored on a system dubbed Stuart, after movie mouse Stuart Little. "We want to know the mouse that [researchers] get in March is the same as the mouse they get in December." Not everybody, Kingham says, will appreciate the centre's work. "While some people feel uncomfortable about the use of mice in medical research it currently remains essential, as most research needs to be performed using living organisms." The centre's work is strictly regulated, requiring "lots of licences". There are approvals from the Garvan and St Vincent's animal ethics committee, which includes scientists, veterinarians and animal welfare representatives. Licences are required from the Department of Primary Industries, the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service and the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator. Tight security, required by the regulators, is not just to keep the genetically altered mice disease-free. "There can be no escapees," says Kingham, pointing to "mouse-proof" doors.
Poster Comment: we do have some that glow under ultra-violet light I want one!
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
|
||
|
[Home]
[Headlines]
[Latest Articles]
[Latest Comments]
[Post]
[Sign-in]
[Mail]
[Setup]
[Help]
[Register]
|
||