Glow-In-The-Dark Rabbits Bred For Science Research Could Help Improve AIDS Medication
Turkish researchers along with scientists from the University of Hawaii have successfully bred rabbits with the ability to glow in the dark. The collaborative effort was part of an attempt to gather data for life-threatening illnesses, including acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).
Using a technique known as active transgenesis, the research team extracted a fluorescent protein from the DNA of jellyfish to implant into a rabbit embryo. The result? Out of a litter of eight rabbits, two carried the “glowing gene,” meaning they lit up green when exposed to a black light.
“Our colleagues in Turkey have been so excited by the birth of the transgenic rabbits and that excitement has spread to the public through news coverage on Turkish television,” Dr. Stefan Moisyadi, associate professor at the University of Hawaii, said in a statement.
“It’s been wonderful to see this international scientific collaboration produce such positive results.”
Moisyadi and his colleagues believe they will be able to collect the beneficial protein from the milk of female rabbits through genetic manipulation. Hopefully, this technique will produce inexpensive and effective medication for diseases, such as AIDS, Alzheimer’s, and hemophilia, ABC News reported.
“It’s just a marker to show that we can take a gene that was not originally in the animal and now exists in the animal,” Moisyadi added.
"[For] patients who suffer from hemophilia and they need the blood clotting enzymes in their blood, we can make those enzymes a lot cheaper in animals with barrier reactives rather than a factory that will cost billions of dollars to build.”
Glowing Green Rabbits from UHMed on Vimeo.