Rodents News

December 23, 2024

Top Headlines

What a Gut Fungus Reveals About Symbiosis and Allergy

Nov. 27, 2024 — A fungus discovered in the mouse stomach may hold a key to fungal evolution within the gastrointestinal tract, according to new research. The finding suggests that preclinical studies until now have overlooked a major influencer of mouse ...

Cigarette Smoke Alters Microbiota, Aggravates Flu Severity

Nov. 20, 2024 — A new study shows that cigarette-smoke induced changes to the microbiota resulted in increased severity of disease in mice infected with influenza A ...

Scientists Recreate Mouse from Gene Older Than Animal Life

Nov. 18, 2024 — An international team of researchers has achieved an unprecedented milestone: the creation of mouse stem cells capable of generating a fully developed mouse using genetic tools from a unicellular organism, with which we share a common ancestor that ...

Generation of Rat Offspring from Ovarian Oocytes by Cross-Species Transplantation

Nov. 15, 2024 — Attempts to obtain eggs and offspring using oocytes in ovary have been made for keeping desirable traits in livestock, preserving human fertility, etc. Ovarian transplantation, one of those methods, ...

Latest Headlines

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CAST Mouse Model: A Crucial Tool for Future COVID-19 Outbreaks

Dec. 6, 2024 — Researchers have identified the first mouse strain that is susceptible to severe COVID-19 without the need for genetic modification. This development marks a pivotal step forward in infectious ...

Study of Mountaineering Mice Sheds Light on Evolutionary Adaptation

Nov. 8, 2024 — Highland deer mice and their lowland cousins ventured on a simulated seven-week ascent to 6,000 meters. By tracking how the mice responded to cold stress and progressively lower oxygen levels, the ...

Mice Tails Whip Up New Insights Into Balance and Neurodegenerative Disease Research

Nov. 6, 2024 — Why do mice have tails? The answer to this is not as simple as you might think. Research has shown that there's more to the humble mouse tail than ...

Male Mice Use Female Mice to Distract Aggressors and Avoid Conflict

Oct. 15, 2024 — Researchers tracked the behavior of mice using machine learning to understand how they handle aggressive behavior from other mice. The researchers' findings show that male mice deescalate aggressive ...

New Mouse Models Offer Valuable Window Into COVID-19 Infection

Oct. 1, 2024 — Scientists have developed six lines of humanized mice that can serve as valuable models for studying human cases of ...

Pigs May Be Transmission Route of Rat Hepatitis E to Humans

Sep. 25, 2024 — New research suggests that pigs may function as a transmission vehicle for a strain of the hepatitis E virus (HEV) common in rats that has recently been found to infect ...

The Curious Immune Cells Caught Between Worlds

Sep. 24, 2024 — Scientists have uncovered critical differences between how innate-like T cells mature in humans and mice. Early in life, most innate-like T cells in the human thymus aren't able to use all of their ...

Spiny Mice Point the Way to New Path in Social Neuroscience

Sep. 11, 2024 — Scientists zeroed in on brain circuitry powering the desire of spiny mice to live in large groups, opening the door to a new model for the study of complex social behaviors in ...

Researchers Identify Mechanism Underlying Allergic Itching, and Show It Can Be Blocked

Sep. 4, 2024 — Researchers identified a mechanism for why some people will itch from an allergen or mosquito bite exposure, while others will not in a new study, ...

CRISPR-Based Genome Editing in Nile Grass Rats

Aug. 23, 2024 — A team of researchers has discovered a set of methods that enabled the first successful CRISPR-based genome editing in Nile grass ...

Researchers Call for Genetically Diverse Models to Drive Innovation in Drug Discovery

Aug. 14, 2024 — Researchers unveiled an approach to drug discovery that could revolutionize how we understand and treat diseases. Their commentary explains the limitations of studies using traditional mouse models ...

Live Longer, Die Healthier

Aug. 6, 2024 — Everyone wants to live to a ripe old age, but no one wants to be decrepit. Now, researchers demonstrated a treatment that could lengthen life -- and vigor -- up to the very end. Gerontologists ...

Researchers Are Closing in on a Mouse Model for Late-Onset Alzheimer's

July 24, 2024 — Researchers are working to create the first strain of mice that's genetically susceptible to late-onset Alzheimer's, with potentially transformative implications for dementia ...

Where to Put Head and Tail?

June 18, 2024 — Formation of the body axes is a critical part of embryonic development. They guarantee that all body parts end up where they belong and that no ears grow on our backs. The head-tail axis, for ...

Researchers Create Realistic Virtual Rodent

June 11, 2024 — To help probe the mystery of how brains control movement, scientists have created a virtual rat with an artificial brain that can move around just like a real rodent. The researchers found that ...

New Antibiotic Kills Pathogenic Bacteria, Spares Healthy Gut Microbes

May 29, 2024 — Researchers have developed a new antibiotic that reduced or eliminated drug-resistant bacterial infections in mouse models of acute pneumonia and sepsis while sparing healthy microbes in the mouse ...

Some Mice May Owe Their Monogamy to a Newly Evolved Type of Cell

May 15, 2024 — What makes the oldfield mouse steadfastly monogamous throughout its life while its closest rodent relatives are promiscuous? The answer may be a previously unknown hormone-generating cell. Scientists ...

Promising New Treatment Strategy for Deadly Flu-Related Brain Disorders

May 2, 2024 — Researchers have found that a brain disorder associated with flu (influenza-associated encephalopathy, or IAE) can be caused by the influenza virus entering the brain from the blood via endothelial ...

Test Reveals Mice Think Like Babies

Apr. 26, 2024 — Are mice clever enough to be strategic? A neuroscientist who studies learning in humans and animals, and who has long worked with mice, wondered why rodents often performed poorly in tests when they ...

With Hybrid Brains, These Mice Smell Like a Rat

Apr. 25, 2024 — Mice lacking an olfactory system have had their sense of smell restored with neurons from rats, the first time scientists have successfully integrated the sensory apparatus of one species into ...

Brainless Memory Makes the Spinal Cord Smarter Than Previously Thought

Apr. 11, 2024 — Researchers have discovered the neural circuitry in the spinal cord that allows brain-independent motor learning. The study found two critical groups of spinal cord neurons, one necessary for new ...

Connecting the Dots to Shape Growth Forces

Mar. 29, 2024 — Branching patterns are prevalent in our natural environment and the human body, such as in the lungs and kidneys. For example, specific genes that express growth factor proteins are known to ...

Secrets of the Naked Mole-Rat: New Study Reveals How Their Unique Metabolism Protects Them from Heart Attacks

Mar. 27, 2024 — This unusual, subterranean mammal with extreme longevity shows genetic adaptations to low oxygen environments which could offer opportunities for advancing other areas of physiological and medical ...

Craving Snacks After a Meal? It Might Be Food-Seeking Neurons, Not an Overactive Appetite

Mar. 20, 2024 — Psychologists have discovered a circuit in the brain of mice that makes them crave food and seek it out, even when they are not hungry. When stimulated, this cluster of cells propels mice to forage ...

Mice Surprise: Researchers Discover New Native Species

Feb. 22, 2024 — Australia can lay claim to two new species of native rodent thanks to a new study. The aptly named delicate mouse was previously thought to be a single species spanning a massive stretch of the ...

Female Lab Mice Behave Very Differently When Placed Outdoors

Feb. 14, 2024 — A new study has examined social behavior of lab mice in large outdoor ...

A Rare Recent Case of Retrovirus Integration: An Infectious Gibbon Ape Leukaemia Virus Is Colonizing a Rodent's Genome in New Guinea

Feb. 5, 2024 — Retroviruses are viruses that multiply by incorporating their genes into the genome of a host cell. If the infected cell is a germ cell, the retrovirus can then be passed on to the next generation as ...

Study in Mice Uncovers New Protective Benefit of Breast Milk

Jan. 24, 2024 — An immune component of breast milk known as the complement system shapes the gut environment of infant mice in ways that make them less susceptible to certain disease-causing bacteria, according to a ...

Experiments in Infant Mice Suggest New Way to Prevent Spread of Flu in People

Jan. 11, 2024 — Scientists have long known that some viruses and bacteria begin infections by latching first onto sugar molecules on the surfaces of cells lining the sinuses and throat of mammals, including humans. ...

Measuring Grass Pollen Allergens Instead of Grass Pollen Count Will Help Hay Fever Sufferers

Jan. 8, 2024 — Measuring airborne grass allergen levels instead of pollen counts will be more beneficial for hay fever sufferers as new research shows grass allergen levels are more consistently associated with hay ...