After the awarding of the Nobel Prize for medicine for the creation of knock-out mice (mice bread to lack key genes), a rodent backlash was widely expected. Whether it was just a lack of sensitivity or a carefully contrived strategic move by Stockholm, mice were angered, and a militant response seemed inevitable.

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Yet, whereas the threat posed by modern super mice remains substantial and we have heard unconfirmed rumours of a resurgence of bubonic plague, it now seems the threat was overplayed. A case of governmental fear-mongering? It is unclear.

It is, of course, well understood on both sides, that the ultimate aim of the research is to develop similar treatments for humans and that they are not acting out of kindness to mice. But, imperfect as it is, most mice seem to realise that co-operation is the most sensible strategy for the time being.

In a similar vein, Stanford University School of Medicine researchers have found a way to give mice new immune systems. This is done by introducing new blood-forming stem cells into the mice's bone marrow.

Training an army?
Some have however expressed fears that researchers may be training an army of super mice to use against other rodents. It has already been established that there is a profound cultural and socio-political divide between lab rats and their free-roaming counterparts. The fear is that this divide may be exploited, pitting rodents against each other.

These fears have been around ever since a study published in Nature, and reported by the Associated Press (AP), outlined how researchers have created remote-controlled rats.

According to the AP the researchers "fitted five rats with electrodes and power-pack backpacks. When signalled by a laptop computer, the electrodes stimulated the rodents' brains and cued them to scurry in the desired direction, then rewarded them by stimulating a pleasure centre in the brain."

The official line is that these remote-controlled mice may one day be used to search for disaster survivors.

Cruelty continues
Whether this is the whole truth or not, what few will argue about is that it is cruel to treat mice in this way, or to create knock-out mice, or most other forms of rodent research for that matter.

Indeed, for every cancer-resistant super mouse, there are scores of cripple, blind and diabetic mice, some being held in what eerily resembles torture camps.

All of which brings us back to where we started – there may be a temporary lull in human-rodent tensions, but the underlying socio-economic problems persist. For now though, rats need humans to provide the waste that feeds their growing population, and humans need rats for medical experiments on the potential of various cures. – (Marcus Low, Health24, November 2007)

Read more:
A hundred years of lab rats
Super-sized rats
On the verge of war
Of mice and medicine
 

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