Animal Model For Hepatitis C

ScienceDaily (Feb. 5, 2009) — During its career, the potentially fatal hepatitis C virus has banked its success on a rather unusual strategy: its limitations. Its inability to infect animals other than humans and chimpanzees has severely hampered scientists in developing a useful small animal model for the disease.



But now, in a breakthrough published in the journal Nature, Rockefeller University scientists have identified a protein that allows the virus to enter mouse cells, a finding that represents the clearest path yet for developing a much-needed vaccine as well as tailored treatments for the 170 million people across the globe living with the tenacious, insidious and rapidly changing virus.


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090128183934.htm

[lalapple]

interesting, i'm just learning about different organism models in class right now, already covered the Xenopus frog, sea urchins (fertilized some eggs in lab myself and made sea urchin babies), and currently on zebra fish.  mammals and birds are later on in the course, but this just makes things so much more interesting :)