Mice can teach us about
human disease
Student Society for Science 27-2-15
SCIENTIFIC SHIELD: Humans & Health
SUMMARY:
Scientists understand what fewer than one-fifth of human genes do; probing mice can help fill the gaps.
Zorana Berberovic works at the Toronto Centre for Phenogenomics (FEE-no-geh-NO-miks) in Toronto, Canada. There she and other scientists are working together to figure out the function of every mouse gene.
That's because between the mouse and humans even they look and act very differently 85 to 90 percent of our genes are the same or at least very similar. So by understanding the instructions in every mouse gene, people should get a pretty good idea of the instructions in virtually every human gene too.
As we can see in the article Zorana uses the pee oh the mouses to research humans diseeses:
Zorana Berberovic coaxes a mouse to pee into a vial. Later, she will test its urine for signs of illness that could be related to "knocked-out" genes.
Berberovic and her fellow researchers even want to know which genes affect pee. They especially want to know whether chemicals that the body dumps into urine can tell us how healthy — or sick — an individual might be.
CRITICAL APPRAISAL:
For a long time a lot of animals experiments were made. The humans normally use mouses, cows, goats...as an objects wich gives us profits.
In the article it's said that many scientists are looking well beyond pee. Their research may tease out which genes affect an animal’s size, weight, behavior — even lifespan. Matching a gene with the effect it has on those characteristics or traits is called phenotyping. But then what is the price? The death of thousands of mouses for their experiments?
It's true that we demostrate that the DNA is the genetic material with the Griffith's experiment or that we could cure some diseeses through animals but many of them die or have to be self-sacrificing for the sake of science.
Then is when we enter in the world of the bio ethics. We can kill animals if then we save lives? If we can, why not experiment with humans? Where's the limit?
In my opinion we have to go on in science. Experience more and no matters the way. The limits? Humans. The animals, even I'm not agree at all are a little price that takes us to the glory and discovery.
GLOSSARY:
beneficiaries The individuals who receive money, better health or some other type of benefit from some activity, decision or process.
DNA (short for deoxyribonucleic acid) A long, spiral-shaped molecule inside most living cells that carries genetic instructions. In all living things, from plants and animals to microbes, these instructions tell cells which molecules to make.
ethics A code of conduct for how people interact with others and their environment. To be ethical, people should treat others fairly, avoid cheating or dishonesty in any form and avoid taking or using more than their fair share of resources (which means, to avoid greed). Ethical behavior also would not put others at risk without alerting people to the dangers beforehand and having them choose to accept the potential risks.
gene A segment of DNA that codes, or holds instructions, for producing a protein. Offspring inherit genes from their parents. Genes influence how an organism looks and behaves.
phenotype (in biology) A term derived from the Greeks terms for “to show” and “type.” It refers to all characteristic features of an organism that can be observed. This would include its size, shape, color — even how it would typically behave. These traits stem both from its genes (what it inherited from its parents) and its “environment” — including its diet. Although individuals of a species — or even a subgroup, such as a strain —may vary somewhat, the common traits of the entire group will be its phenotype.
(The video explains the Griffith's experiment and what
happens with the mouses used)
