Glow-In-The-Dark Mice Help Investigating the Central Clock of the Brain

(University of Geneva, June 30, 2013)

Many of our physiological functions such as sleep, activity or hunger regularly fluctuate throughout the day. They are given their rhythm by a central clock in the brain which sends signals to local oscillators that are present in virtually every cell. Researchers from the University of Geneva have for the first time directly tracked this cycle in live mice using so-called Luciferase genes from the firefly. A cage equipped with mirrors and a light sensor allowed them to follow the activity levels of different circadian genes over the course of several months. The new technology not only allows to reduce drastically the number of mice needed for this type of experiment, but it is further applicable to many areas of biomedical research.