For some strange reason, the internet is all abuzz about transgender mice, and it is all because of what THIS PRESIDENT said.
So now, people think that transgender mice exist.
However, people are conflating transgender mice with TRANSGENIC mice, and so, as a Clinical Neuroscience Postgrad student, I thought I’d share this helpful distinction.

smh. Transgenic mice are NOT transgender, for heavens’ sake!!

As you know, I am currently doing a Masters in Clinical Neuroscience, and we have been taking modules and subjects in medical genetics and genetic therapies.  We have learned a lot about transgenic mice – how they are created and how they are used to treat diseases and develop treatments for diseases and heritable genetic conditions. 

Transgenic mice are mice that are created and used in medical research, where we transplant a particular gene into the mouse to study that disease, develop treatment, and so on. Scientists use mice in research because they are mammals like humans and have similar neurobiological makeup.

In Clinical Neuroscience, transgenic mice are very common in neuroscience research and are used to study and create treatments for neurodegenerative diseases like Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and more. They are also used to express human genes or mutations that are associated with certain neurological disorders and to study gene function and the role of particular genes in brain development and disease. Finally, transgenic mice are used to test the safety and efficacy of potential treatments for neurological diseases before they are tested or used on humans.

 

Thanks to scientific research using mouse models, scientists have been able to develop treatments for many medical conditions. And thanks to transgenic mice, in particular, scientists have been able to develop genetic therapies and treatments for various conditions, from diabetes to Alzheimer’s, sickle cell disease, and more.

Genetic therapy is a very new and emerging field of medicine, so research is still ongoing even though human trials and even treatment have been cleared for a few diseases or conditions.

This is why I found it hilarious to learn that some people on the internet are referring to transgenic mice and transgender mice.
Transgenic: (trans: transplanting ; genic: a gene. aka transplanting of a gene or gene sequence).
Trangender: (trans: transplanting ; gender: a gender aka changing a person’s gender from one form to another.)
Transgenic and transgender are not even in the same postcode of similarity.

But I hope this post has helped clear up any misconceptions and clarified things.

In short, transgenic mice are NOT transgender mice. 

In fact, transgender mice do not exist. 

As you were. 

 

Want to see what goes into the bag of a Clinical Neuroscience Masters’ student?
Watch this.