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Mighty Mouse and Normal Mouse on Treadmill  (Source: Case Western Reserve University)
Might mouse able to run five or six kilometers at 20 meters per minute; can't leap buildings in a single bound

Case Western Reserve University researchers announced today that a new breed of mighty mouse has been found to be metabolically superior to wild mice of the same breed. University researchers made the discovery while researching the role of PEPCK-C enzyme in skeletal muscle.

The mighty mouse breed at the university is able to run five or six kilometers at a speed of 20 meters per minute on a treadmill for up to six hours non-stop. These rodents were genetically modified to have higher than normal levels of a gene responsible for production of the enzyme phosphoenolypyruvate carboxykinases (PEPCK-C).

Richard W. Hanson, Professor of Biochemistry at the university said, “[The mice] are metabolically similar to Lance Armstrong biking up the Pyrenees; they utilize mainly fatty acids for energy and produce very little lactic acid.” Researchers have also noted that these genetically modified mice eat 60% more than other mice of the same breed, yet stay slimmer.

The mice have also been noted to be more aggressive than non-enhanced mice of the same breed.

Hanson also told BBC News that, “The muscles of these mice have many more mitochondria. These are the little 'engines' in the cell that produce energy. For some reason, the number of mitochondria are around 10 times more than we see in the muscle of their littermates."

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Genetic Modification
By Jaegs on 11/3/2007 11:49:43 PM , Rating: 5
I guess future Olympics will have to take muscle tissue samples to test for extra mitochondria.




RE: Genetic Modification
By goku on 11/4/07, Rating: 0
RE: Genetic Modification
By Master Kenobi (blog) on 11/4/2007 12:10:25 AM , Rating: 3
We can create them.... Stronger... Faster... Healthier... We have the technology.

Why bother training an army? Genetically engineer one that is stronger, meaner, faster, more badass than normal soldiers..... Begun the clone wars has....


RE: Genetic Modification
By fk49 on 11/4/2007 12:50:50 AM , Rating: 5
Or Halo Wars - Featuring the Spartan Supersoldiers led by Mouster Chief.


RE: Genetic Modification
By 1337n00blar on 11/4/2007 12:53:25 AM , Rating: 2
ever watch the movie "Soldier"? Faster, but not smarter ;)


RE: Genetic Modification
By lompocus on 11/4/2007 2:54:49 AM , Rating: 2
But we're already smart :D!

Besides, in the event we need soldiers capable of computing the same a X9650 OCed to 6.5GHz with all 8 cores running at full capacity...we can always plug one in with some microchip interface thingy!


RE: Genetic Modification
By hrah20 on 11/4/2007 5:13:02 AM , Rating: 3
Holy Cow!!!, Pinky & the brain,brain,brain,brain, brain.


RE: Genetic Modification
By wht1986 on 11/4/2007 8:52:07 PM , Rating: 2
Point .. Narf


RE: Genetic Modification
By Mitch101 on 11/5/2007 9:40:17 AM , Rating: 2
Are you thinking what I am Pinky?
Yes but leather chafes me.

I smell a B movie for the Sci-Fi Channel based on this.


RE: Genetic Modification
By sj420 on 11/4/07, Rating: 0
RE: Genetic Modification
By Pythias on 11/4/2007 2:33:23 AM , Rating: 5
I, for one, welcome our new rodent overlords!


RE: Genetic Modification
By zinfamous on 11/4/2007 9:33:14 AM , Rating: 2
It took 9 posts?!


RE: Genetic Modification
By feraltoad on 11/4/2007 9:31:06 PM , Rating: 3
Big Brother will use these until they perfect the mechanical dogs.

Also, Professor Chaos would be even more formidable with these as his "minions".


RE: Genetic Modification
By lukasbradley on 11/4/2007 10:35:09 AM , Rating: 2
Or, it is the end of the beginning. Perhaps we're getting ready for the next step.


RE: Genetic Modification
By TMV192 on 11/4/2007 12:21:58 AM , Rating: 2
you find out if the athlete was genetically enhanced by spotting "extra mitochondria" unless it was a profound amount. Athletes will naturally have more in their muscles


RE: Genetic Modification
By Ryanman on 11/4/07, Rating: -1
RE: Genetic Modification
By tmouse on 11/5/2007 7:47:43 AM , Rating: 3
Nah, They forgot to mention one side effect: the recipient runs around singing "Here I come to save the Dayyyy!" in tenor, so its easy to spot the enhanced creatures.


By hannibal the mechanical bull on 11/6/2007 9:37:56 AM , Rating: 2
the end is near, I can feel it ! LOL


Star Trek saw it coming...again!
By MonkeyPaw on 11/3/2007 11:56:23 PM , Rating: 6
Did they name the mouse Julian Bashir? ;)




RE: Star Trek saw it coming...again!
By Xenoterranos on 11/4/2007 12:01:12 AM , Rating: 2
Holy Crap that's obscure!

Sad = I remember that episode.


By kenji4life on 11/4/2007 12:12:12 AM , Rating: 2
They thought about it, but decided to go with Roga Danar instead. The mouse later lead a rebellion and it and the other mice escaped from the lab.


RE: Star Trek saw it coming...again!
By FITCamaro on 11/4/2007 7:19:21 AM , Rating: 2
Same. Had all the seasons until I accidentally formatted my video drives.


RE: Star Trek saw it coming...again!
By Gul Westfale on 11/4/2007 11:19:06 AM , Rating: 2
same thing happened to me... 30 GB of trek gone after a drive failed... coincidence? coincidences happen every day. i believe in coincidences. but i don't trust coincidences.


RE: Star Trek saw it coming...again!
By KristopherKubicki (blog) on 11/4/2007 12:48:30 PM , Rating: 2
I guess we know your X-files archive is still intact! :)


By Gul Westfale on 11/4/2007 1:39:24 PM , Rating: 2
actually the quote was from elim garak, a simple tailor on DS9. just a simple tailor.


RE: Star Trek saw it coming...again!
By KristopherKubicki (blog) on 11/4/2007 2:40:42 AM , Rating: 2
I had to dip way back into the nerd reserve for that one. You get a +6 for today.


By glitchc on 11/4/2007 7:29:29 PM , Rating: 4
"nerd reserve" = wikipedia?


RE: Star Trek saw it coming...again!
By SavagePotato on 11/4/2007 3:27:19 PM , Rating: 3
Of course not they named him Khan.

He is more agressive after all as the article says.


RE: Star Trek saw it coming...again!
By SavagePotato on 11/4/2007 3:30:19 PM , Rating: 4
No doubt a squeeky Khaaaaaaaaan! was heard throughout the lab when he blew by the other mouse in the race.


RE: Star Trek saw it coming...again!
By Gul Westfale on 11/4/2007 5:13:14 PM , Rating: 2
somewhere, ricardo montalban is smiling.


By feraltoad on 11/5/2007 5:02:06 AM , Rating: 3
his enormous tan man-boobs dancing in the wind


Umm... seems a little fast.
By swim2383 on 11/4/2007 12:48:07 AM , Rating: 2
I think you mean 20 meters per minute, but it would be cool to see a mouse running nearly 45 miles per hour =)




RE: Umm... seems a little fast.
By pattycake0147 on 11/4/2007 1:00:57 AM , Rating: 2
Nope I thought the same thing. Check your calculations. It's 7.5 mph.


RE: Umm... seems a little fast.
By swim2383 on 11/4/2007 1:23:52 AM , Rating: 2
no, i was referring to the title where it said 20m/sec


RE: Umm... seems a little fast.
By deanx0r on 11/4/2007 5:50:40 AM , Rating: 2
I don't know how you even got to that speed.

20m/min is 1200m per hour (20m x 60 min.) or 1.2km/h which translates in approximatively 0.74mph.

1.2km/h for 4+ hours for a mouse would be the equivalent of running a marathon for us ;)


RE: Umm... seems a little fast.
By swim2383 on 11/4/07, Rating: 0
RE: Umm... seems a little fast.
By deanx0r on 11/4/2007 2:13:38 PM , Rating: 2
I was not referring to your post, but pattycake's, who somehow managed to come up with 7.5mph with 20m/min.


Trade off
By psych2l on 11/4/2007 12:29:41 PM , Rating: 2
Unfortunately you don't get something for nothing, there are always trade offs. In this case although a greater number of mitichondria produces more energy in the short term, you also get that much more oxidants forming which is the main cause of DNA damage. I suspect these enhanced mice have a markedly shorter lifespan than their wild type counterparts.




RE: Trade off
By GrandMareg on 11/4/2007 1:09:03 PM , Rating: 2
While I'm not sure of their differences in lifespan I doubt that these mice would be able to live as long without food as the other mice. In a lab setting this is great, they don't have to worry about finding food, but stick them out in the wild and see what happens.


RE: Trade off
By bioorganic on 11/4/2007 1:26:12 PM , Rating: 2
Actually, they have a longer lifespan.
quote:
PEPCK-Cmus mice had an extended life span relative to control animals; mice up to an age of 2.5 years ran twice as fast as 6-12-month-old control animals.


This is not that surprising. Other lifespan increasing interventions, like calorie restriction, also increase mitochondrial biogenesis.


RE: Trade off
By geddarkstorm on 11/5/2007 12:24:44 PM , Rating: 4
Actually, the aging process is more closely related to the length of telomeres than anything else, hence why cancer cells with aberrant telomerase expression are immortal.

Oxidative byproducts from simple metabolism aren't really that dangerous owing to the fact there's plenty of superoxide dismutase and hydrogen peroxidase floating around cells to take care of it, which is also kinda why the debate about if antioxidants are really that helpful for you or not is still hot. Moreover, faster metabolism doesn't necessarily mean more oxidative byproducts as they are the result of low efficiency of the process not its speed; and hence oxidative stress occurs during disease, poisoning, or ingestion of very bad food sources where the metabolic cycle gets thrown out of whack.

Now, if they do have much higher levels of oxidative byproducts, cancer rates are what you'd expect to go up as a result, not a decrease in lifespan.


Ok
By sj420 on 11/4/2007 1:04:13 AM , Rating: 1
So whats next? Anything?

What about fly traps. Lets exaggerate on what a more aggressive, stronger, un-friendly, hungry Fly trap would do if it was say, 3-feet+?

Hmm They could do this to anything.

The next thing they will do is either make some form of human permanent enhancement, or one of those cool injection shot pistols that temporarily enhances your mitochondria count.




RE: Ok
By fk49 on 11/4/2007 1:16:04 AM , Rating: 3
You mean..Piranha plants?

And plasmids?

Welcome to Rapture folks.


RE: Ok
By kyp275 on 11/4/2007 2:26:51 AM , Rating: 2
Where do I buy the telekinesis plasmids at?


RE: Ok
By Screwballl on 11/4/2007 10:23:57 AM , Rating: 3
Feeeeed me Seymore...


The Secret of NIMH
By ZimZum on 11/4/2007 1:33:56 AM , Rating: 5
Which one is Nicodemus?




Has anyone thought...
By Plasmoid on 11/4/2007 6:53:03 AM , Rating: 5
Maybe that mouse is a little faster, and hs more endurance, but the other mouse is a heck of a lot smarter to not run on a treadmill for 6 hours just for a couple of lab technicians.




Title
By sidhu663 on 11/4/2007 12:55:50 AM , Rating: 2
i hate to correct typos but when its in the title its a little irritating. its enhanced not enanced




RE: Title
By pattycake0147 on 11/4/2007 1:04:03 AM , Rating: 2
You need to check the bold portion before actual article. It should be 20 meters per minute, not 20 meters per second.


LOL...
By richelmontro on 11/4/2007 7:08:30 AM , Rating: 2
has anyone thought of what could happend if that mouse escaped and decided to mate..lol




RE: LOL...
By JonnyDough on 11/4/2007 2:10:39 PM , Rating: 2
In Florida they released (accidentally?) a bug that was supposed to eat the larva of another bug. Turns out that now they have a much worse problem...it's pretty common for crap like this to get out into the environment somehow. If these mice got out and bred we'd have grain stores being consumed faster, and fewer mice being caught by predators because of speed. This might even make it harder to catch them with traps.


Just wait till one escapes...
By Oobu on 11/5/2007 7:01:54 AM , Rating: 2
Anyone ever seen the movie "The Secret of NIMH"?? Anyone?




By murphyslabrat on 11/5/2007 1:00:08 PM , Rating: 2
Unfortunately...


By theapparition on 11/5/2007 8:24:14 AM , Rating: 4
In related news, Apple today issued its own position on genetically engineered mice. An Apple spokeswoman was quoted as:

"We have no need for these new mice, our 1 and 2 legged mice have been running on our treadmills just fine. We see no need for even 4 legged ones, much less these so-called "super-mice". Perhaps if they just designed the treadmill better, they wouldn't need to play with genetics."

When confronted about how these mighty-mice could increase productivity, Steve Jobs was quick to dismiss the idea.

"So what if they run on the treadmill faster and longer? What we want to improve is the treadmill "experience". We want them to just look more hip and cooler while on the treadmill, even if they can't do as much. But when I release a four-legged super-mouse, you can bet it will be revolutionary.........time to up the power on my reality distortion field."




Padawan
By Kyanzes on 11/4/2007 6:45:03 AM , Rating: 3
The Force is strong with this one!




oh really?
By Gul Westfale on 11/4/07, Rating: -1
RE: oh really?
By Martimus on 11/5/2007 2:56:07 PM , Rating: 2
My ex girlfriend had to take steroids to keep her strong enough to survive the chemotherapy. Somehow, I don't think she was doing it to "enhance her performance". It is a common treatment for people with bad cancer, because it makes it less likely that the Chemo will kill you along with the cancer.


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