• Question: In what way are genetically-modified mice different to normal mice?

    Asked by anon-181148 to Laurent on 1 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Laurent Dupays

      Laurent Dupays answered on 1 Jun 2018:

      Hi garythegadgetguy,

      You have certainly heard about DNA? DNA is a molecule inside all cells that contains all the instructions for the development and function of living things. If you change a piece of that DNA you can change the function of a cell.

      To come back to your question, genetically-modified mice are different from normal mice because we have added or removed a piece of their DNA so they can now do more or less things.

      For example, in my research I need to study some particular cells in the heart but I cannot clearly find them in the middle of all the others. To find them easily, I genetically-modified some mice by adding a piece of DNA which make those cells appear green under a microscope.

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