genetically altered

Researchers from McGill University, Montreal, Canada, found that during pain, mice show facial expressions like eyes squeezing or inflating nose.

The Age quoted lead researcher, Dr. Jeffrey Mogil, McGill University as saying, “Considering the pain field’s heavy and continuing dependence on rodent models and the paucity of usable measures of spontaneous pain in animals, the ability to reliably and accurately detect pain, in real time, using facial expression, might offer a unique and powerful scientific tool in addition to having obvious benefits for veterinary medicine.”

The researchers at University of California Irvine (UCI) in collaboration with University of Oxford and Oxitec Ltd. created a new breed of mosquitoes by disrupting the development of the male insect’s wing muscle, mating it with wild female insect which rendered the offspring incapable of flying and spreading the disease.

Vector biologist, Anthony James, professor of microbiology, molecular genetics, molecular biology and biochemistry at UCI, said, “Current dengue control methods are not sufficiently effective, and new ones are urgently needed.”