Welcome to Science Whiskers…. a blog on everything mouse related in the world of science.
Mice are the most commonly used animal in research and have significantly contributed to many scientific developments. Every day new scientific articles are published using mice.
Each year, the UK Home Office publish an Annual Report which shows the number of animals which have been used in scientific procedures (or in other words, how many animals have been used in an experiments). The 2011 report was published on the 9th July 2012 and goes into great detail about the number of experiments, type of experiments and species of animal used in the UK. The report is a mammoth 52 page document with pages of numbers, but there are two important facts to take from this report
MOUSE FACT #1 – Mice are the most commonly used animals in research.
MOUSE FACT #2 – The number of mice being used in research is increasing.
These 2 facts highlight the importance of mice in research. The growing number of mice used in research is due to the development of genetics over the past decade, which have allowed scientists to manipulate the genetics of mice. Mice are small animals and their genes can easily be modified, inserted or deleted to help us understand biological systems and disease pathways, which can be used to further our knowledge and develop new treatments.
My aim for the blog is to keep you updated with new research using mice and its impact on science. Also, to try and educate you on the use of mice in scientific research and how much this wonderful small creature has helped contribute to science and what we know today.
(My apologies for the graph usage in my first blog post, future blogs will try to AVOID the use of graphs, this is a blog for everyone and I will try my best to avoid scientific jargon and horrendous, impossible to understand graphs.)
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