Fluorescing animals?....and pigs might fly.
18 Jan 2006 by Evoluted New Media
Pigs may not be flying yet, but they are certainly glowing
Pigs may not be flying yet, but they are certainly glowing
If you were told that fluorescent green animals are the new weapon in the fight against disease, then you would be forgiven for thinking that the next claim biomedical science will make is that pigs can fly!
Well, you might be closer to the truth than you think. Pigs can’t fly yet, but at least three of them glow.
Yet to reach the skies, but positively
glowing with all the attention. One of
Wu Shinn-Chih's fluorescent pigs
A team of researchers have bred the pigs with a gene for Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) inserted into their genome in a move they hope will benefit stem cell research.
Pigs are commonly used to study human disease and Wu Shinn-Chih, Assistant Professor of animal science at the National Taiwan University and leader of the research, hopes that fluorescent cells will show up during stem cell treatment of diseased organs.
“This was simply an idea of ours,” said Wu. “We hope it can help with future stem cell research by cutting down on the time researchers expend and allow them to monitor tissue changes overtime.”
He added: “The pigs are green from inside to out, including their hearts and internal organs. From the outside, the pigs appear to be bathed in a green tint, particularly their eyes, mouth and knuckles.”
