The "Mickey Mouse" Experiment -Mice with Human Eyes

As part of a study to find a cure for colorblindness, scientists have successfully created a genetically modified mouse that can see like humans. Regular mice, like most other mammals, only register light in the blue and green regions of the spectrum, but the GM mice were able see red light as well – a trick that so far only monkeys, apes and people have mastered.

Men are at greater risk than women of being color blind because color vision genes are located on the X-chromosome. Since women have two X chromosomes, odds are good that at least one will carry the normal genes. This study provides hope that color-blindness in human is correctable.

As part of the study, scientists inserted a human gene into the genome responsible for generating a particular protein in the retina of the animal's eye that was sensitive to light at the red end of the visible spectrum. Unlike unmodified mice, the GM mice demonstrated that they were now able to learn how to sense red light - just like monkeys, apes and people.

Jeremy Nathans, of the Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, Maryland, said that the study emulates the important evolutionary transition in early primate mammals from dichromatic (two color) vision to full trichromatic (three color) vision, which is estimated to have occurred 40 million years ago. Original post by Rebecca Sato.

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