科學家培育出“夜光兔”

Researchers from the universities of Istanbul and Hawaii hope the technique can lead to new ways to produce medicines.

As part of an effort to improve treatments for life-threatening illnesses, a team of scientists have created rabbits that glow in the dark.

Their efforts produced two rabbits out of a litter of eight that went from being a normal, fluffy white to glowing green in the dark. The rabbits were born at the University of Istanbul as part of a collaboration between scientists from universities in Turkey and Hawaii.

The rabbits glow to show that a genetic manipulation technique can work efficiently, though the specific color is More cosmetic than scientific. "The green is not important at all – it's just a marker to show the experiment can be done successfully," said University of Hawaii associate professor Stefan Moisyadi.

To produce the glowing effect, researchers injected jellyfish DNA into a mother rabbit's embryos. Those altered embryos were then inserted back into the mother. Similar experiments have resulted in glowing cockroaches and cats.

Eventually, the researchers hope the technique can lead to new ways to produce medicines, Moisyadi said.

"The final goal is to develop animals that act as barrier reactives to produce beneficial molecules in their milk that can be cheaply extracted, especially in countries that can not afford big pharma plants that make drugs, that usually cost $1bn to build, and be able to produce their own protein-based medication in animals," Moisyadi said.

The rabbits are expected to have the same life span as their non-glowing counterparts, but Moisyadi said he understands people can object to this kind of experimentation involving live animals.

"To the people against, I say: think about, what are the benefits and what are the injuries?" Moisyadi said. "And if the benefits outweigh the injuries, let's go with the benefits."

Moisyadi, a native of Turkey who is now with the University of Hawaii, started developing the project in 2006, and researchers are now waiting to see if pregnant sheep produce similar results.據英國《衛報》8月13日報道，伊斯坦布爾和夏威夷大學的研究人員培育出能在黑暗中發光的兔子。

經過研究人員的努力，一窩8只兔子中有兩隻兔子正常情況是白色的，在黑暗中卻發出綠光。這兩隻兔子出生在伊斯坦布爾大學，是土耳其和夏威夷大學的科學家們合作的結晶。

“綠色根本不重要，它不過是證明實驗能夠取得成功的標誌。”夏威夷大學副教授斯特凡·莫伊斯雅迪說。

爲了使之產生髮光效果，研究人員在母兔的胚胎中注入水母的DNA，再把這些變異的胚胎植回母體。類似的實驗曾經培育出發光的蟑螂和貓。

莫伊斯雅迪表示，研究人員希望該技術最終能產生生產藥物的新方法。他說，他們的最終目標是培育乳汁中含有有益分子的動物，用於生產以蛋白質爲基礎的藥物，特別是承擔不起大型製藥廠的國家。

這些兔子的壽命預計與不發光的兔子一樣。莫伊斯雅迪說，他知道人們可能會反對這種涉及活體動物的實驗。“我對反對的人說：想一想，好處是什麼，壞處又是什麼？如果好處大於壞處，就讓我們前進吧。”

莫伊斯雅迪是土耳其人，目前在夏威夷大學工作。他從2006年開始開發這個項目，現在，研究人員正等着看懷孕的綿羊是否能產生同樣的結果。