Scientists create fluorescent green rabbits in their efforts to produce better, cheaper medicines

Scientists working at the University of Hawaii have collaborated with researchers at two Turkish universities to produce a pair of rabbits that glow bright green under black-light. The rabbits themselves are but a curiosity, but this breakthrough holds great promise for the production of medicine in the future.

The scientists created these 'transgenic' rabbits by injecting the embryos with a fluorescent protein taken from jellyfish DNA. Eight embryos were injected; six grew to be normal rabbits, with the other two developing the desired glow.

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"These rabbits are like a light bulb glowing, like an LED light all over their body," said Dr. Stefan Moisyadi, who teaches at the University of Hawaii and works at the University's Institute for Biogenesis Research, according to Hawaii news source KHON2. "And on top of it, their fur is beginning to grow and the greenness is shining right through their fur. It’s so intense."

According to the researchers, the fluorescent rabbits look just like their brothers and sisters under normal light, all of these rabbits will live a full, healthy life, and the glow under black light is completely harmless.

"The green is only a marker to show that it's working easily," Dr. Moisyadi said in the interview.

Here's a (somewhat overly pun-filled) news report from KITV News regarding the breakthrough:

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These experiments may seem a little strange, but its work like this that helps medical science move forward. As the genetic techniques that produced these black-light bunnies advances, it will give us a way to produce advanced medicines to treat and perhaps cure many of the diseases that plague us.

(Photo courtesy: University of Hawaii)

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