Gene regulation has obviously always been one of the biggest controlling factors is our phenotypes, genetic predispositions and even social behaviour as shown in the Garfield et al. paper about Grb10. In this day and age, we have so many technologies at hand that allow us to manipulate genes and conduct insane studies on animal models. A particularly interesting study I recently heard about was trying to study the language center of the brain by transfecting mice with “language genes” in hopes that they could get these mice to “speak.” There has been much controversy against this due to the humanizing of mice. However, particularly in the study of Grb10, it would prove to be extremely beneficial if we could understand what the mice are expressing in social studies. This would provide a lot of insight to gene regulation and social behaviour; whether we are genetically determined to a certain personality. But is this too inhumane? Thoughts?
Amanda
email: manda147@interchange.ubc.ca | Student Number: 92681071
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