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Weapon-X Mice
Bob Vila's Hammer writes "New Scientist has this article about a new breed of mice created in a lab. They have the ability to heal wounds very effectively as they have been genetically engineered to produce large amounts of a protein called angiopoietin-related growth factor. This AGF was found to be in high concentrations at the site of wounds and is expecting further study to ascertain its full potential use in treatments for skin disorders and diseases in humans."
Or their swollen ears, noses and eyelids.
What's your GCNSEQNO?
*squeak* *squeak* *SNIKT*
Ceci n'est pas un post.
Bob Vila's Hammer, eh? Paying attention to healing research becuase you hit the wrong nail one time too many?
-- Some days you're the dog; some days you're the hydrant.
Okay, so we take one of these mice who's a real ASSHOLE, then coat his little skeleton with a super-hard metal and retractable claws, and _then_ we'll have the first X-Mouse.
We should genetically modify some of these to have USB connectors first, though. Maybe FireWire, since they'll be all super and shit...
About time to think about building a better mousetrap.
Supplies of adamantium have drop around the globe after two firms began competing for the rare substance. One firm, located in Toyko seems to be using the substance in mice, while the other, located in a frozen tundra in Canada, seems to be using it to create an woman with really pointy claws....
I'm just waiting for them to make this therapy availble for humans... so we can all have thick skin, swollen ears and eyelids... i will be so pretty...
All I want are fricken mice with fricken laser beams attached to their heads, is that so much to ask?
Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage
I am pretty sure that Weapon-X was the name given to Wolverine by the research facility that bonded the adamantium to his skeleton. The healing factor is one of his natural mutant abilities (and, in fact, is what allowed him to survive the adamantium bonding process). So, unless they've found a way to do that (which is what I first thought after reading the headline), it would just be Wolverine.
I'm doing the same thing I try to do every day, Pinky.... Try to take over the world! Brain could create a subservient army of such supermice and then use it to... well, take over the world.
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I've been thinking of bottlenecks in the national economy. One of them is injuries and healing. It occurred to me that if someone could translate a growth factor like this to human usage, and get people with injuries healed and back to work faster, it could save billions in health care costs and lost productivity.
science is a religion
Behold, the power of cheeze!
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
with anything is the healing process... is the possibility of causing blood clots, etc.
Blood clots are sometimes due to blood congealing/thickening when it shouldn't (as opposed to when it should, when you are hurt). Some tumours, cancer, and others are I also believe caused to accelerated cell-growth.
Having fast-healing wounds could be nice... but there could definately be nasty side effects. It might have a detriment to people who favour piercings too...
My apologies for so many subscription-required articles. Unfortunately, the biosciences are just like that. There have been some moves lately to make this less so, but large publishing companies like Elsevier and the Cell people and Science und Nature have been rather resistant. Hmmm, I wonder why.
Would love to get her hands on these puppies..err..mice. The Fists of Righteous Harmony would cower in wonder as the injured mice army magically healed themselves and continued their ass-kickin stomp of pre-nublile teenie girl perfection.
We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. - HST
Someone makes a Neal Stephenson reference on Slashdot and gets modded down? What's the world coming to? Didn't NEone read "Diamond Age"?
Taken side by side with the recent article about how lab mice may be psychotic i can smell trouble. Surely there's a guideline somewhere about not creating insane super mice - you just know it'll look like a bad idea in retrospect. /t
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