April 9, 2008

Virtual Cure

Once again there is exciting news on research to cure Type 1 - in mice - sort of.

Maybe it is just me, but are most stories about possible cures about curing mice? OK, sometimes the story is about how the mouse model isn’t always analogues to the human model - No Kidding!

Well, I have more exciting news for mouse cure fans! Science is looking to cut the mice out of the deal.


Don’t get too excited. It isn’t that there is a cure for actual people or mice. No, they are working on a virtual mouse!

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Entelos Inc. and American Diabetes Association (ADA) announced that ADA members and researchers will have free access to Entelos' Realab 'virtual mice' testing platform.

The simulation technology will enable researchers to conduct simulations on drugs, drug combinations, dose levels, dosing regimens, therapeutic targets, biological pathways and functions on the primary animal model used to study type 1 diabetes.

Science will be able to cure virtual mice soon. So a cure for virtual humans is just a few years down the road. I am sure this will be big news to all the type 1 avatars in Second Life.


No mice were harmed in the writing of this blog entry.

5 comments :

  1. It would be encouraging if it felt like they moved past curing mice once in a while.

    Hopefully this will speed up the process.

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  2. Indeed better understanding the mouse and how it differs from human should help speed cures to patients (and avoid dead ends).

    From the release:

    "In building our initial model of a ‘virtual mouse’, scientific teams at Entelos discovered subtle but important differences between species that can have a big impact on interpreting results of animal studies and on designing clinical trials. Our models and predictive platforms help to better translate results and design experiments to make animal studies more meaningful and relevant for finding effective medicines for patients."

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  3. "I am sure this will be big news to all the type 1 avatars in Second Life."

    Hilarious! This is why we all love you, man.

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  4. DOH, Why are they not building a program model of a human instead? Did I just loose brain cells? I think so....Thanks Bennet, that was in ter est ing... :D

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