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Scientists Grow New Eyes (In Tadpoles)

Posted by timothy on from the good-place-to-start dept.

MagnetDroid writes "Michael Zuber and his colleagues from SUNY Upstate Medical University have shown how to regrow frogs eyes using stem cells. Zuber's team genetically engineered the stem cells to express transcription factors that regulate eye development and, when they transplanted them into frog embryos that had had one eye removed, they regrew into fully functioning tadpole eyes. Unfortunately, the same trick doesn't work in mammals but Zuber hopes to find chemicals that activate the transcription factors without genetic engineering and says this might one day lead to new treatments for diseases linked to cell loss in the retina."

37 comments

  1. How do they get the scientists into the tadpoles? by techmuse · · Score: 0

    It's amazing enough that the scientists can grow new eyes, but how exactly do they get themselves into the tadpoles before they start growing the new eyes? Scientists are usually much larger than tadpoles.

  2. Re:How do they get the scientists into the tadpole by Conditioner · · Score: 0

    simple, figure out a way to make the tadpoles larger.

  3. Oblig Blade Runner by seven+of+five · · Score: 1

    "If you could only see what I have seen with your eyes..."

    1. Re:Oblig Blade Runner by theilliterate · · Score: 1

      Dammit! I was going to say "I only do eyes..."

  4. Due To Scientist-Induced "i" Shortage.... by pandrijeczko · · Score: 1, Funny

    ...Apple releases "Pod" and "Phone".

    --
    Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
  5. Poor froggie... by MaxwellEdison · · Score: 1

    Hmm...Looks like they couldn't be botherd to implant the new eye in alignment with the other. I wonder how it looks once the tadpole is fully developed.

    Also, I wonder how long until scientists manage to reproduce the regressive gene for necks and pointy collars.

    --
    -=Bang Bang=-
    1. Re:Poor froggie... by Brad1138 · · Score: 1

      I wonder how it looks once the tadpole is fully developed.

      A little like this

      --
      If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
  6. Re:How do they get the scientists into the tadpole by malkir · · Score: 0

    It's remarkable actually, just one step closer to that elementary school insult most of our scientific crowd received... 'four eyes'

    Darwin indeed!

    /sarc

  7. Do you see what I see by davidwr · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Do you see what I see?"
      Said the science experiment to his fellow frog.
    "Do you hear what I hear?" ...

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
    1. Re:Do you see what I see by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you pondering what I'm pondering?

  8. Sorry... by NMBLNG · · Score: 1

    I'd much rather have artificial eye-implants. Kind of like Geordi LaForge.

    1. Re:Sorry... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, sex and ASCII porn are not enough, I want actual ASCII sex with my girlfriend.

    2. Re:Sorry... by Kandenshi · · Score: 1

      Really? I mean, being able to see into other parts of the ultraviolet spectrum could be kind of neat, you really want your vision to be so easily taken away? Steal your VISOR and all of a sudden you're absolutely blind.

      I could see wanting to go for the ocular implants that Geordi got later on though. Those I suppose could still be stolen, but far less easily than a VISOR(and no more susceptible to theft than organic eyes). Plus they're more powerful.
      huh, apparently Seven of Nine got something like these too, except perhaps even more advanced. Had stopped watching Voyager before that happened. I suppose it's not really a stretch to think that she'd be open to mechanically enhancing the body though :P I was a bit surprised that more people didn't opt for the procedure in the Trek universe, particularly people who are doing engineering work. Geordi certainly benefited from the abilities his visor gave him on several occasions. A diplomat might too(since his visor could apparently detect the involuntary reactions made by humanoids when they're bluffing)

    3. Re:Sorry... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      nice try, we already know you don't have a girlfriend.

    4. Re:Sorry... by khellendros1984 · · Score: 1

      Seven had one of her eyes removed as a child, when she was originally assimilated. The Voyager doctor gave her a replacement implant. I don't think that it (normally) did anything more than normal human sight...although there were a few episodes that they "tuned" it to act as an extra-dimensional detector or something.

      --
      It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
    5. Re:Sorry... by Mr2cents · · Score: 1

      you really want your vision to be so easily taken away?

      What's the difference with real eyes? Give me a spoon, a fork or any combination thereof and I can make you blind in a few seconds.

      Personally, I'd just like some extra eyes. Full 360 degrees vision seems cool, and I can also figure out some uses for eyes on my toes. (I just hope skirts won't go out of fashion).

      PS: xkcd reference intended.

      --
      "It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
  9. Finally! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'll really be able to have eyes in the back of my head!!!

    1. Re:Finally! by philspear · · Score: 1

      Well, we know how to make tadpoles and flies with extra eyes in wierd places, like the middle of the frog head.

      http://dev.biologists.org/cgi/content/abstract/126/19/4213

      So we're almost there.

  10. Wasting money on eyes by Snuhwolf · · Score: 1

    Instead of wasting money on growing eyes they should be figuring out how to make a
    pesticide-resistant frog that can survive the f&^#ing chemical soup we humans subject them to.
    Read up, kids:
    http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-11/uop-prf111108.php

    1. Re:Wasting money on eyes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      If given the chance a frog would kill you and your whole family. Now is not the time to go soft on frogs.

    2. Re:Wasting money on eyes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      yea, and it's only 99% mortality... you know what the opposite of mortality is right? immortality. 1% of frogs are fucking immortal now. mother fucker, we're ganna have a crisis on our hands here soon.

    3. Re:Wasting money on eyes by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 1

      Instead of wasting money on growing eyes they should be figuring out how to make a
      pesticide-resistant frog that can survive the f&^#ing chemical soup we humans subject them to.

      But pesticide-resistant frogs may end up quite incapable of eating mosquitoes. Just ask the Haggunenons.

      --
      Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
    4. Re:Wasting money on eyes by nospam007 · · Score: 1

      'Instead of wasting money on growing eyes ...'

      French scientists work on growing legs.

  11. Re:How do they get the scientists into the tadpole by whitehatlurker · · Score: 1

    Heck they could do that in the 60's.

    --
    .. paranoid crackpot leftover from the days of Amiga.
  12. Terrified masses by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fear ripped through the fly community when news of multiple eyed mutant frogs was released today. The response was swift as the fly community applied for their share of the 750 billion in government bailout money. Blue Bottle Fly spokesman Buzz T. Dung called for more defense spending and a ban on chemical weapons and fly swatters. Congress is expected to hold a special session on the matter next week.

  13. My eyes! by 427_ci_505 · · Score: 2, Funny

    What has been seen, cannot been unseen.

  14. New tag needed? by aLEczapKA · · Score: 0

    Guess we need a new tag: eek! Probably that's what the frog would say anyways...

    --
    -- All Gods were immortal.
    -- S. Lem
  15. simple question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    why not just let nature kill the blind frog and give birth to a new frog with eyes ?

    1. Re:simple question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because humans won't carry that logic on and apply it to ourselves.

    2. Re:simple question by MaxwellEdison · · Score: 1

      This isn't about helping frogs. Its about regrowing lost tissue for humans. They start with frogs because the are better at regenerating lost tissue than mammals. Step two will most likely be to attempt this with adult amphibians, then move on to embryonic mammals. This is more of a proof of concept than a revelational advance in scince. We're still many decades away from a stem cell rich paste you stuff into your disgusting empty eye socket.

      --
      -=Bang Bang=-
  16. Sage words from Dr. Mephisto by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Perhaps we shouldn't be toying with God's creations. Perhaps we should just leave nature alone to its simple, one-assed schematics."

      -Dr. Mephisto

    1. Re:Sage words from Dr. Mephisto by philspear · · Score: 2, Funny

      Well, they cut the eye off of the tadpole, it seems only polite to regrow it for them. Geez, the manners of young anonymous cowards these days...

  17. Hypnotoad! by aLEczapKA · · Score: 0

    zzZZZzzzzZZzz

    --
    -- All Gods were immortal.
    -- S. Lem
  18. Frog from The Simpson's Movie? by Polo · · Score: 2

    Does this make anyone think of the 20-eyed frog from the polluted lake in The Simpson's Movie?

  19. Where do you think they got the tadpoles? by DRAGONWEEZEL · · Score: 1

    You wouldn't take an eye from a two eye'd tadpole... That's just mean. Taking one of many eyes, and only what the scientists needed to do their experiments, now that is sustainable science!!

    --
    How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
  20. Ye gods! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't know about you but my first priority would be to make beholders.

  21. The eye's have nothing... by Mordstrom · · Score: 1

    Screw eyes, grow me some new damm teef! Sharks do it all the time, even WITH laser beams surgically implanted into their skulls.