Thursday May 28, 2009 at 10:35

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itsallinmyhead: How does it glow? Green fluorescent protein, introduced into DNA of egg via virus (2008) What can we learn? Scientists at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta are using green fluorescent protein to study Huntington’s disease, which destroys nervous tissue. In 2008 the researchers infected unfertilized monkey eggs with an HIV-like virus, which changed the eggs’ DNA to include the defect that causes Huntington’s. The virus also introduced a protein that would make rhesus monkeys fluoresce under ultraviolet light (as pictured)—making it easier to study the effects of the disease on the monkeys’ brains. (via GLOWING ANIMALS: Pictures of Beasts Shining for Science)

itsallinmyhead:

How does it glow? Green fluorescent protein, introduced into DNA of egg via virus (2008)

What can we learn? Scientists at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta are using green fluorescent protein to study Huntington’s disease, which destroys nervous tissue. In 2008 the researchers infected unfertilized monkey eggs with an HIV-like virus, which changed the eggs’ DNA to include the defect that causes Huntington’s. The virus also introduced a protein that would make rhesus monkeys fluoresce under ultraviolet light (as pictured)—making it easier to study the effects of the disease on the monkeys’ brains. (via GLOWING ANIMALS: Pictures of Beasts Shining for Science)

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