How would JAX—Florida use animals in its research?
The Laboratory might have small colonies of mice maintained for scientists to use in their research, along with other genetic research organisms such as yeast, zebrafish and worms. The plan is for the main focus of the research to focus on the human genome and be computer-based. When a genome—someone’s complete genetic code—is sequenced, or spelled out, it contains 3 billion letters. Just typing the letters would fill more pages than 30 New York City phone books. So looking at or even storing all of those letters—genetic data—takes a lot of computing power. Figuring out what this genomic information means and how it relates to health and disease takes even more computing and statistical power, plus a lot of ingenuity. But that’s the important work that needs to be done before we can use our genomes to figure out more about disease and how to stay healthy.
