14-billion-years-later: Glow-in-the-Dark Cats may help cure AIDS.Genetic engineering is one of those things that gets a bad rap despite being a rather natural occurrence in bacteria and even certain higher organisms. Also it gives us cats that glow in the dark, which is totally freaking awesome!The cat seen above wasn’t just created for shits and giggles though. There’s a more serious reason behind this fluorescent feline: battling AIDS. Currently there’s two AIDS pandemics in the world: the human one with the better PR team and the feline version. As such scientists have created Glow-in-the-Dark cats as a way of exploring the genetic system of cats in order to better understand how to combat the genetic aspect of the AIDS/HIV virus.In genetic modification of this type cat DNA is inserted with a set of two genes, one from rhesus monkey that conveys resilience to HIV and one from jellyfish that gives them the eerie glow. The idea behind this is that if the cat glows it’s also highly likely to have the viral resistance gene as well.

- animals. biology. genetics. really awesome. biochemistry. cats. science. facts.

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