The Buckingham

At the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, a new technique called gamete-targeted lentiviral transgenesis has been used to fight AIDS within felines and is in the hopes of being a potential step in curing the disease in humans. The procedure is executed by “inserting genes into feline oocytes (eggs) before sperm fertilization.”  The special part of this technique is that a gene is inserted to block cell infection by FIV (feline immunodeficiency virus), which causes the AIDS in cats, along with a “jellyfish gene for tracking purposes.”  This is what makes the cats that were tested with this method glow.  Eric Poeschla, M.D., is a molecular biologist at the Mayo Clinic and is the leader of the study, “One of the best things about this biomedical research is that it is aimed at benefiting both human and feline health.”  Hopefully, the research and technique that Poeschla and other doctors at the Mayo Clinic have studied will continue to move in the right direction in curing AIDS in humans.

Read more on the technique here.