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How fruit fly geneticist Tian Xu is transforming the mouse into a genetics workhorse to reveal the causes of human disease
Sitting in a standard-issue clear plastic cage among hundreds of other white laboratory mice, the piggyBac mouse looks absolutely ordinary, not a bit like an animal poised to turn human genetics research on its head. But when Tian Xu, Ph.D., professor of genetics, switches on an ultraviolet lamp, the mouse emits a faint pink glow—an aura that holds the secret of its transformative power.