• Question: Why are you so interested in mice?

    Asked by Ciwi the penguin to Sara on 6 Nov 2015. This question was also asked by pineapple :), Sasha Lily, Grace.H.
    • Photo: Sara Falcone

      Sara Falcone answered on 6 Nov 2015:

      The main reasons we use mice are that their are small, we can screen lots of them and that they have a relative short life spam (a normal lab mouse lives usually around 2 years). It means that they get old quicker than other animals and that we can screen as many mice as we can in a shorter period of time. At the same time, the genes of the mouse are very very similar to the genes of a human so whatever we find can be potentially be looked in old people (and that is called “translation”).

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