Septic shock- replacing sick mouse ‘models’ with healthy human volunteers makes for better science.

The Oxford Medical dictionary defines sepsis as “the putrefactive destruction of tissues by disease-causing bacteria or their toxins” and there is no argument that sepsis, or ‘blood poisoning,’ is a serious health problem. Around the world, sepsis kills more people than AIDS, breast cancer and prostate cancer combined. In people, sepsis can affect anyone but … Read more

Humanising mice – more an exercise in testing the limits of the technology and less an answer to understanding hepatitis C infection.

The image shows six mice, lying other sides, with their faces pushed into plastic tubing delivering anaesthetic gas. The mice all have bright areas on their sides that indicates where they have tumours growing.

Modifying tumour cells from malignant liver cancer so that they shine brightly under specific conditions might seem like a neat trick. That is until you realise that this will not help diagnose, detect or eradicate cancer in people. Instead, these modified human cells are destined to be injected into a mouse, to generate a huge … Read more