Color-Changing Rodents

Gautama writes: "Found this on Memepool and thought it'd be of interest to folks around here as well. Looks like folks over at the University of Virginia have made some interesting breakthroughs in applied biotech! Me, I'm looking forward to being able to change eye or hair color with a swallowed capsule!"

Comments

Only works if you've been genetically modified.

[Christopher Thomas]

Me, I'm looking forward to being able to change eye or hair color with a swallowed capsule!

You'll be waiting a bit longer, then.

This experiment involved producing mice with what amounts to an on/off switch built in to their pigment genes. The dietary supplements just toggled the switch.

The research project demonstrated one possible switch mechanism, and showed that such switches could fairly easily be spliced into arbitrary genes, if you're in a position to modify an organism's DNA (easiest before conception).

Your pill would have to rewrite all of your DNA to accomplish the same effect. If you can do that, you don't need to bother with the switch.

Still a neat experiment, though. This will make it easier to study the function of genes, and easier to study certain types of genetic disease.

Re:Only works if you've been genetically modified.

[nounderscores]

I wrote a similar idea in a short story a while ago. You modify some hair follicles (easily transplanted) to have melanin production supressed by stress hormones. As you get more stressed, your hair lightens, blonds have more fun and then the negative feedback loop has you stabilise at an attractive brown. I called it SmartHair.

The wrong mouse

[return 42]

Gee, Brain, what're we gonna do tonight?

The same thing we do every night, Pinky - try to take over the world!

How we gonna do that, Brain?

Camouflage, Pinky, camouflage!