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- Mutant Rabbit Raises Controversy Over Genetic Manipulation
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- French genetic researchers created Alba for artist Eduardo
Kac. Thanks to genes borrowed from a jellyfish, the albino rabbit glows
green when placed under special lighting. (Chrystelle Fontaine/www.ekac.org)
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- In regular light, Alba appears like any other furry white
rabbit. But place her under a black light, and her eyes, whiskers and fur
glow an otherworldly green.
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- She could have been a perfect prop for Jefferson Airplane's
hallucinogenic 1966 song, "White Rabbit, but Alba's co-creator, artist
Eduardo Kac, holds much more lofty intentions for this glow-in-the-dark
rabbit.
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- "[Alba] highlights the fact that transgenic animals
are regular creatures that are as much part of social life as any other
life form, writes Kac on his Web site devoted to the rabbit project. Kac
is an assistant professor of art and technology at the School of Art Institute
of Chicago.
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- Scientists Call Project Frivolous,
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- Kac intended Alba's birth in February to spark a debate
about the project itself, and about the practice of manipulating genes
in animals for research. Then he hoped to adopt Alba and take her into
his home with his wife and daughter. Kac says the entire project, which
he has dubbed "GFP Bunny (for green fluorescent protein bunny) is
designed to combine biotechnology, private family life and the social domain
of public opinion into a single furry symbol.
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- But so far, it seems Kac's first objective has overshadowed
the others. Scientists at the National Institute of Agronomic Research
in France, which created the rabbit for Kac, are hesitating to release
the rabbit to him and his family due to protests over its creation.
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- Animal rights activists claim the project is a needless
and abusive manipulation of an animal, while scientists who work with the
fluorescent proteins have dismissed the project as interesting but silly.
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- "There's nothing dangerous about it, as far as we
know, says Woodland Hastings, a biologist at Harvard University and co-discoverer
of the jellyfish's glowing gene and its function. "But the project
is rather frivolous. There are many more important things you can do with
these genes.
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- The French scientists created Alba using a process called
zygote microinjection. In this process, the scientists plucked a fluorescent
protein from a species of fluorescent jellyfish called Aequorea victoria.
Then they modified the gene to make its glowing properties twice as powerful.
This gene, called EGFG (for enhanced genetic fluorescent gene) was then
inserted into a fertilized rabbit egg cell that eventually grew into Alba.
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- As the cell divided, the "green gene also replicated
and made its way into every cell of Alba's body.
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- Glowing Mice
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- This isn't the first time a mammal has been designed
to glow. In 1997 Tokyo scientists added glowing jellyfish genes to mice.
The mice, however, were created for research purposes " to provide
animal models for studying biological processes and diseases.
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- As Hasting explains, the luminescent jellyfish genes
can be used to tag certain genes or proteins. When that protein is active,
scientists can detect its fluorescence under a black light. When it's inactive,
no fluorescence appears.
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- That kind of tracing ability allows scientists to watch
the effectiveness of potential drugs as they affect the body without using
surgery. For example, anti-cancer genes can be inserted with the glowing
genes so a light source is all that is needed to learn if genetic manipulation
is successful.
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- Hasting adds that in the future the technology may also
help guide surgeons as they cut away cancerous genes during surgery.
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- "If you can make a particular gene glow, then you
should be able to see when and where a cancer cells is, he says. "That
can localize the cancer and help the surgeon know where to cut.
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- Osamu Shimomura, a biologist at Woods Hole Marine Biological
Laboratory and one of the first to detect the glowing gene in Aequorea
victoria, is now working on developing variations of the gene for disease
research. He calls Kac's rabbit project "interesting, but not too
important.
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- Neon Beer?
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- Variations of the jellyfish's glowing genes have been
used in another relatively non-scientific application. In December, a company
called Prolume began marketing squirt guns loaded with replicated versions
of the genes. The liquid squirts like water, but lights up when it comes
in contact with a person, or any substance containing calcium.
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- Other researchers are working on developing glow-in-the-dark
hair mousse, ink and cake frosting. There is even preliminary research
underway to produce glow-in-the-dark beer and champagne.
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- Still, Lisa Lange, the director of policy and communications
at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, points out these other
applications of glow genes don't take advantage of an animal's life.
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- "I think creating this rabbit a silly and wasteful
thing to do, says Lange.
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- Mission Accomplished
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- Kac's supporters point out, however, that furry Alba
has already drawn attention to the often-overlooked, living creations of
genetic research. And that is just what the artist hoped would happen.
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- "Regardless what you believe about his work "
at least it gives people in the public a chance to react to what is going
on in the scientific community, says Laurie Rosenow, a fellow with Institute
for Science, Law and Technology in Illinois. "Sometimes it's important
to bring what people in white coats do into the public forum.
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