Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
HONOLULU — It's something that must be seen to believe. UH research doctors, in conjunction with staff at a university in Turkey, have found a way to make rabbits glow in the dark.
The research will hopefully have greater applications than just being something odd to look at. The doctors working on the project said it could have benefits to humans in the future.
"What you can do is you get the DNA with the gene that you're lacking and you can insert it into your body and fix it," Doctor Joel Mahr told KHNL
The process is far from complete, but already researchers are improving its efficiency. Only 15 years ago, the success rate in genetically altering mice was only one percent to five percent.
"At the moment we have increased the rate with this active transgenesis of having an enzyme do the the insertion to about 30 percent," Mahr said.
While the rabbits are quite a sight, that's nothing compared to what the doctors hope to see in November, when the same application will be tried on sheep.
