Seed Media Group

The World's Fair

All manner of human creativity on display

Search this blog

Profile

profile.gif David Ng is Director of the Advanced Molecular Biology Laboratory at the University of British Columbia - this is a just a fancier way of calling himself a science teacher.

profile.gifBenjamin Cohen is an Asst. Professor of Science, Tech., and Society at the University of Virginia. He studies the place of S & T in environmental history, policy, and ethics. He also writes other stuff.

mappsmall.gifTrying to find your way around this place? Like most expositions, we offer a map: Map of The World's Fair





Cannonball%20Morris%20Icon.jpg


The%20A-B%20icon.jpg




"The world is full of light and life, and the true crime is not to be interested in it." A.S. Byatt

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

Links

Blogroll

And so forth...

« "Improving God's Creation" [A mountain ecology Interlude] | Main | Dave Ng is a scientist who can help you with your research grant renewal by providing useful feedback on your lousy excuses for not being very productive »

Nude hairless mouse with a human ear on its back

Category: Nature, as in parts, bits, molecular and stuff
Posted on: August 7, 2006 8:29 AM, by David Ng

I gave a talk to some folks at UBC's School of Music this past weekend, on biology, genetics and the odd reference to music. One of things I mentioned (with an auditary theme) was the interesting case of the use of Nude mice as vectors for the production of human ears (image below).

Mouse%26Ear.jpg

I usually talk about this, because it's a good example of how media can often coerse the reader/viewer to come to premature conclusions. You see, I find most of the audience will make one of two responses: either an "EEWWW" response, or a "THAT'S COOL" response. In any event, you would of gotten the sense from mainstream articles when this first went to press that perhaps this was a real human ear, and you could even whisper into the back of this poor mouse to garner a response.

Anyway, our Nude Mouse piece (showcased earlier) went over this a bit. The ear by the way is just a prosthetic.

(Nude mouse speaking) The media I can live without. We're fairly private creatures, so the whole publicity thing is not cool. Besides, they almost never get it right. One time, my uncle had a human ear prosthetic grow on his back, and well, Christ, with all the press that ensued, you'd think he was sleeping with Jennifer Anniston. Not only that, but if you picked up a newspaper, you'd see this picture of poor naked Uncle Orv with a huge human ear on his back, and you'd be totally thinking that he could hear out of this thing. Which, of course, is not at all true. A shame really - that experiment was pretty elegant in my view.

You're kidding me, right?

Not at all. Engraft a hollow polymer scaffold (shaped like an ear) on Uncle Orv's back, infiltrate it with tissue cells from a burn victim needing an ear prosthetic, and wait for growth. Unky Orv ends up doing good because he has no hair, and he also doesn't have the biology to reject the foreign ear tissue. How brilliant is that? (from the SCQ)

Of course, an inevitable question I always get regarding this, is "do they have to kill the mouse in order to get the ear prosthetic?" Maybe, we'll save that one for later...

Post a Comment

(Email is required for authentication purposes only. Comments are moderated for spam, your comment may not appear immediately. Thanks for waiting.)





Having problems commenting? (UPDATED)

Blogs in the Network

Advertisement

Top Five: Most Active

Search All Blogs