Did you know that sea squirts share about 80% of our genes with us? They are the invertebrate that is most like humans. Scientists are able to inject foreign DNA into the squirts, so they can be used as a model to study Alzheimer’s because they have so many of the same genes as humans. They were able to put the Alzheimer’s gene into the sea squirts and they developed the plaques that indicate the start of Alzheimer’s. The squirts can now be used to test new drugs to see if they will work in reversing Alzheimer’s.
This article interested me because I’ve seen a lot of articles lately about different things being able to treat Alzheimer’s. This article stuck out to me because it seems so weird that sea squirts have so much in common with us, when they look nothing like us.
Does it surprise you that sea squirts share 80% of genes with us?
Do you think this will be a breakthrough in Alzheimer’s research?
Here is a website about sea squirts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunicate
And here is one that explains Alzheimer’s: http://www.alz.org/index.asp