July - Dec 2010

• Mice muscles controlled by light

  29th September 2010

  How do you re-animate paralysed limbs? A new approach being trialled on genetically modified mice uses flashes of light.

• No retirement for chimp colony

  29th September 2010

  186 chimps currently housed in unofficial retirement in the Alamogordo Primate Facility in New Mexico are to be re-housed in the Southwest National Primate Research Center.

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  Mice and monkeys metabolise BPA like humans

  29th September 2010

  New research shows female mice, monkeys and humans appear to metabolise the oestrogen-like chemical bisphenol A (BPA) in similar ways.

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  Free course on science communication

  24th September 2010

  The National Science Learning Centre in York is offering a fantastic opportunity to improve your science communication skills with a two-day course on engagement with schools and young people on 18-19 October 2010.

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  EU directive on animal research becomes law

  23rd September 2010

  Yesterday the President of the European Parliament, and the Belgian State Secretary (representing the EU countries) put pen to paper and signed the new EU Directive 8869/10 in the use of animals in scientific research.

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  Retinal cells transplanted into blind mice

  23rd September 2010

  Retinal cells, necessary for colour vision, have been successfully transplanted into blind mice.

• Loss of gene makes mice smarter

  21st September 2010

  Mice with a disabled RGS14 gene are able to remember objects and learn to navigate mazes better than normal mice.

• Tasmanian Devil genome sequenced

  21st September 2010

  The Tasmanian Devil is at risk of extinction in the wild due to a transmissible cancer passed on when one animal bites another.

• Drug reverses diabetes nerve damage

  20th September 2010

  Diabetes can cause the death of nerves in the body's extremities, a condition known as diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN).

• Single gene regulates motor neurons in the spinal cord

  20th September 2010

  As a normal mammalian body grows, hundreds of motor neurons grow from the spinal cord to the muscles they will control.