Mice Avatars!

Not little blue extras from the movie, but real mice are avatars and their use as avatars is becoming quite common.

Specifically the mice avatars I am referring to here are being used in the fight against cancer. The use of avatars helps doctors tailor treatment to the genetic makeup of each patient. Researchers grow human tumors in mice (from pieces of the human needing treatment’s tumor) and test different treatments on the mice rather than trying drug after drug on often very critically ill human patients. The great thing about this is that the humans with the cancerous tumors don’t have to be guinea pigs (I know, nothing like another rodent reference), but the downside is that mice trials are not covered by insurance so they must be paid out of pocket. The cost is high but going down as scientists refine the process from $25,000 to $10,000. The lab mentioned in the article I read is Champions Oncology, the cancer research center at John Hopkins and the good thing is that the insurance companies are interested and talking with the folks there. Maybe the mice avatar connection will be covered or at least more affordably available in the near future because insurance companies could ultimately save money by not having to cover drugs for patients that are ineffective. For now it’s enough to know that mice avatars have helped a child (also in the article I read) in his battle against Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare, aggressive, and often fatal, bone cancer that typically attacks children and young adults. The use of mice avatars is also being studied to aid in the fight against breast and prostate cancers, as well as in developing treatment for diabetes and other digestive problems.

So, here’s to the mice avatars (picture me raising my water bottle and the little herd of blue mice raising their swords), I wish you Godspeed, though many of you may not return from this battle, may you triumph over cancer's insidious evil as you do your part to help win the war!