The dismal lot of the naked mole-rat just got worse.
About as ugly as a mammal comes and confined underground with little oxygen to breath, the buck-toothed, hairless creatures had one thing going for them: they felt no pain from acids that irritate the skin of other mammals.
University of Illinois scientists weren’t having it. They’ve figured out a way to “rescue” the mole rats’ sense of pain by inserting the gene for the neurotransmitter, Substance P, into their DNA.
Read more at The Baltimore Sun blog Science Matters.
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