Glowing Cats a New Tool in AIDS Research

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Glowing Cats a New Tool in AIDS Research

Posted by samzenpus on Monday September 12, 2011 @03:32AM from the healing-glow dept.

sciencehabit writes "Scientists have developed a strain of green-glowing cat by infecting their eggs with a virus containing a foreign gene—the first time this method has worked in a carnivore. Experts say the advance could make the cat a valuable new genetic model—and potentially protect it from an HIV-like virus. "

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Annoying at night... by Roogna · 2011-09-12 03:38 · Score: 4, Funny

From my experience in life, my cats always liked trying to wake me up in the middle of the night. So now they'll be giving off light too? Great. Not an improvement.
1. Re:Annoying at night... by ColdWetDog · 2011-09-12 04:35 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  I'm glad I quit doing hallucinogens a long time ago. Reality is getting to be just too damned weird as it is.
  
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  Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
2. Re:Annoying at night... by GameboyRMH · 2011-09-12 05:28 · Score: 2
  
  I'm sure it's only a soft glow, and it will make it harder to trip over or accidentally kick them in the dark. That would be a big safety improvement, especially when they try to get your attention by zig-zagging just in front of your swinging feet in total darkness.
  
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  "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
3. Re:Annoying at night... by Reverand+Dave · 2011-09-12 05:54 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  The little neon tetra's at the pet store they sell for a buck each have phosphorescent proteins from jellyfish in them. The don't glow brightly, but they do glow.
  
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  I got here through a series of tubes
Not impressed. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · 2011-09-12 03:39 · Score: 3, Funny

Just some monochromatic green glow. Call me when the skin of the cat is a 1920x1080p display with 24bit color.

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sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
1. Re:Not impressed. by dintech · 2011-09-12 03:59 · Score: 2
  
  That 120px is for the "I can haz radiation?" caption.
2. Re:Not impressed. by Steauengeglase · 2011-09-12 04:00 · Score: 2
  
  Wait, Nyan Cat is the cure for AIDS? The meme circle is complete.
3. Re:Not impressed. by djdanlib · 2011-09-12 04:14 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  It's probably going to take a while to decide on the cabling standard.
  The quarreling feline-luminescence-transport camps are currently divided between CAT-5meow, CAT-6, High Definition Meow Interface and DisplayPurr-t.
  Also, the mouse compatibility bug is being worked, but resolution appears to be a ways out still.
please stop calling it "glowing" by v1 · 2011-09-12 03:47 · Score: 4, Informative

It's fluorescing. Yes, technically that is a "glow" but glow is a lot more general term. All fluorescing items glow, but not all glowing items fluoresce. Most people that read "glow" will expect to turn out the lights and see a green cat without needing to shine an invisible special lighting on it.

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I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
1. Re:please stop calling it "glowing" by sandytaru · 2011-09-12 03:53 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  If I had a cat like this I'd install the blacklights in my light fixtures and keep the normal lights off all the time.
  
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  Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
2. Re:please stop calling it "glowing" by sandytaru · 2011-09-12 05:26 · Score: 2
  
  Based on the pictures included in the article, it does not appear to affect their eye proteins, only the keratin in their fur.
  
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  Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
3. Re:please stop calling it "glowing" by Macman408 · 2011-09-12 06:32 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  And in the same strain of disappointing mainstream science reporting, basically everything I've read on this seems to focus on the "we made cats glow green" part, rather than the more serious part of the research, which is to protect against AIDS. The gene to make the cat's fur fluoresce green is just a marker so that they know which cats will also have the gene that could protect against AIDS, and can then run experiments to see if that gene works as they hope. That article seems to be better than average, in that it largely focuses on the AIDS part, and keeps the "omg glowing cats" restrained to the headline and a few spots in the body.
  I'm just waiting for the article about the research dog that harbors a cure for cancer, but more importantly, it can skateboard!
4. Re:please stop calling it "glowing" by adisakp · 2011-09-12 06:55 · Score: 2
  
  If I had a cat like this I'd install the blacklights in my light fixtures and keep the normal lights off all the time.
  
  If you have a cat and install blacklights, you might not like what you see. Cat urine glows. And you'd be surprised where cats get their urine. Sometimes they spray carpet and furniture, sometimes your bed or sheets, floorboards, all around the litter box etc. Seriously, taking a blacklight into a cat-owners home is usually not a pretty revelation.
Re:So.... by larry+bagina · 2011-09-12 03:48 · Score: 5, Funny

It is a common belief in Africa (as it was in England in the 1800s) that fucking a virgin will cure STDs.
But I have it on good authority that if you try to have sex with a lion, you will not die of AIDS.

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Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Re:So.... by demonbug · 2011-09-12 03:56 · Score: 5, Funny

It is a common belief in Africa (as it was in England in the 1800s) that fucking a virgin will cure STDs.
But I have it on good authority that if you try to have sex with a lion, you will not die of AIDS.
Oh how wrong you are; and trust me, Acquired Intense Disembowelment Syndrome is not a fun way to go.
Commercial application by ProfMobius · 2011-09-12 04:02 · Score: 4, Informative

Why are those people always making those cool GM pets and never sell them ?
I want a glowing cat ! Just sell them already, I'm sure there is a market for that !

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EULA : By reading the above message, you agree that I now own your soul.
1. Re:Commercial application by Quiet_Desperation · 2011-09-12 04:42 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Because everyone panics like little pussies or imposes their little misinformed values on entire populations. They have those glowing tropical fish, and California promptly banned them. One of the state commissioners, Sam Schuchat, an emotional twit, even came out publicly and said it want *not* science but a question of values- *his* values. *He* thought was wrong and spouted a pile of new age religious crap as justification.
Hilarious! =D by LongearedBat · 2011-09-12 04:03 · Score: 2

Seriously? Green glowing cats due to virus infection in a lab?!? Talk about comic book joke sci-fi... only for real. Totally awsome! Funnier than sharks with frikkin' lazer beams.
When I was a kid I lamented the boring age I was born into. I woz wrong. Can't wait to see what the next few decades will bring. Or should we be afraid, very afraid?
(I wonder how my cat would react if he met a glowing cat in the front yard at night.)
Re:Hilarious! =D by Culture20 · 2011-09-12 05:16 · Score: 2

(I wonder how my cat would react if he met a glowing cat in the front yard at night.)
Depends on how it smells. Cats may be sight based for prey, but they're very scent based when dealing with each other.
Re:Finally a cat I can take to a rave party! by Hartree · 2011-09-12 05:39 · Score: 2

"Now if I can just keep them from running away from all the bass..."
I've seen a lynx that pulled the person holding his leash into the rave dance with him, and was having quite a time investigating all the weird stuff going on in there.
His name was Cody, and he was an educational animal for Animals for Awareness. They'd take him to schools in the Chicago area so the kids could see him. Incredibly cool critter. Very personable (a lot of lynxes are a bit skittish).
Re:great... by pspahn · 2011-09-12 06:29 · Score: 2

I dissected a cat in high school biology.
Circle of life, bro; deal with it.

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Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
Re:What about 2007? by _0xd0ad · 2011-09-12 07:12 · Score: 2

That was done via SCNT (aka cloning). This was done by using a virus to inject the modified gene into an egg cell, and the success rate is around an order of magnitude higher than it is for SCNT, but it's the first time it's been successfully done with a carnivore.
Yes, I rtfa:

the only proven way of getting a new gene into a cat, somatic cell nuclear transfer, is tricky ... The strategy works in only a fraction of cases. In cats it's been used to create glowing kittens with no other traits, just proof that it can be made to work.
Poeschla and his colleagues turned to a different method—using a virus to carry genes into an egg cell—that had worked in animals including mice and cows but never been successful in a carnivore. ... The 23% success rate is much higher than the typical 3% seen with somatic cell nuclear transfer
Re:fake picture by sandytaru · 2011-09-12 09:07 · Score: 2

Uh... it's a fluorescent glow, not an internal glow. The fluorescent protein is bound to keratin, the protein that makes up a cat's fur and claws. These are more accurately described as "blacklight reactive kitties."

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Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.