Insects
How Creepy-Crawly Maggots Could Someday Save Your Limb
Every 30 seconds, a lower limb is amputated somewhere in the world with 84% of these amputations caused by diabetic foot ulcers (DFU)s. To improve current treatment methods for DFUs, a team of researchers headed by Dr. Max Scott is genetically engineering maggots. These eat away at your skin to save your limbs!
Who Let The Bugs Out? Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Could Stop Zika
Oxitec, a British biotech company, is combatting the spread of Zika virus, dengue fever, yellow fever and chikungunya, by reducing the mosquito population through genetic engineering. Or rather, letting the bugs limit themselves. Fewer mosquitos? Fewer diseases spread.
Fruit Flies and Epilepsy
Epileptic seizures occur when the normal pattern of neurological activity is disturbed, causing convulsions, muscle spasms, and loss of consciousness. Fruit flies are viable for research in human diseases, as they share 75% of the genes that cause diseases in humans and hope to find the genetic cause of febrile seizures, which are brought on by high fever.