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Life

Beak-nosed mice a clue to human cleft palate

By Wendy Zukerman

1 December 2010

Âé¶¹´«Ã½. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

For want of a protein the jaw was lost

(Image: Trevor Williams/University of Colorado, Denver, et al)

MICE with a beak-like nose have been engineered to help explain how the human face might form in the womb. The hope is that this could lead to the development of therapies for babies born with facial defects, and adult facial reconstruction.

at the University of Colorado Denver in Aurora and colleagues genetically modified mouse embryos to boost or inhibit the activity of a gene that produces a protein called beta-catenin in the outermost cell layer, or ectoderm, of the…

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