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Researchers are learning a lot from a little roundworm, called C. elegans, because it is similar to humans in body organization.
Aired December 18, 2006
Transcript
Researchers can learn a lot about the human body from studying a tiny, little roundworm.I'm Brandis Griffith with your research minute.
University of Kansas researchers are using a worm called C. elegans to study how some genes become resistant to cancer treatment, or how a neuron develops a mutation leading to a type of muscular dystrophy.
Associate Professor Erik Lundquist says the worm is a simple organism, with exactly 969 cells - but it is still similar to humans in body organization, and has many of the same genes and gene functions that humans have.
“All the cells can be identified unambiguously. While they’re simple, they have all the tissues or many of the tissues we have, they have neurons, muscles, skin cells.”
Assistant Professor Lisa Timmons says because the worm regenerates so quickly, they can do many more experiments with it.
They hope what they learn now, will later be translated to larger organisms, and eventually humans.
For more information on this research minute, log onto K-U-DOT-E-D-U.
From the University of Kansas, I'm Brandis Griffith.
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