Genetics news | Genetics news

...And the award for sheer weirdness goes to Xenogen, an Alameda, Calif., outfit that can hitch the gene of interest to one that codes for the protein that makes fireflies glow.

The result: Whenever and wherever the gene being studied switches on inside the mouse, it glows.

Depending on the specific genetic manipulation, the cost to create a custom mouse usually is in the tens of thousands of dollars.

Once the line has been established, individual animals can run into the hundreds.

Problems arise The problem is, the new mouse strains are so specialized that there are only a handful of buyers for any given custom mouse.

Of the thousands of strains it has in stock, the Jackson Laboratory makes money on a few dozen and breaks even on a few hundred more.

The common, high-demand strains and federal grants subsidize the storage and maintenance of the more exotic lines, and also help support the research of more than 50 scientists.

"If you're selling a million mice of a particular strain, it's not too hard to make a marketplace," said Charles Hewett, chief operating officer of the Jackson Lab.

"A mouse that we're only going to sell a dozen or so every year, that's much harder." But biologists agree that those mice are vital to the advancement of biology, which is why the federal government's National Institutes of Health has invested millions of dollars in ...

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Local news HomeNewsLocal News E-mail story Printer-friendly E-mail editor Comments iPod friendly Families push for expanded infant screenings Kansas among lowest number in nation, with tests for only four genetic diseases By Sophia Maines (Contact) Thursday, March 9, 2006 advertisement Michelle Leeker had to stand by as her baby son slowly lost his battle to a rare disease.

She doesn’t want other parents to go through that.

“If they caught it soon enough, there’s a chance he would still be living,” the Baldwin mother said of her son’s degenerative disorder, often called Krabbe disease.

Kansas ranks among the lowest states in the nation for the number of tests or screenings it runs on infants.

Currently, the state screens for four diseases: phenylketonuria, or PKU, hypothyroidism, galactosemia and sickle cell disease.

But the screenings don’t include other genetic disorders.

“We believe that there are children in Kansas today that have these (genetic) diseases and no one knows it,” said Norm Hess, director of program services for the Greater Kansas Chapter of the March of Dimes.

“Many of them go from doctor to doctor trying to find out what’s wrong.

If we implement newborn screening, many families will not have to deal with that issue.” The American College of Medical