STAR-BULLETIN / JANUARY 2000 Dr. Hidenori Akutsu, left, and professor Ryuzo Yanagimachi, in this photo from last year, played with one of the mice they successfully cloned. A permanent genetics exhibit that displays the mice cloned by Yanagimachi opens today at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.

Hawaii’s created
critters star in
Chicago exhibit

The cloned mice are part of a
display that illustrates the world
of genetic manipulation

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By Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.com

Some of Hawaii's famed cloned mice are among the stars of a permanent genetics exhibit that opens today at the pre-eminent Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.

Ryuzo Yanagimachi, University of Hawaii professor of anatomy and reproductive biology, and his researchers became international celebrities in 1998 with the historic cloning of five generations of female mice.

Cumulina was the first mouse cloned by "Team Yana," using nuclei from cumulus cells that surround developing eggs in the ovaries of adult female mice. She died of natural causes at 31 months of age -- the equivalent of 95 years in humans. Mice usually live about two years.

Yanagimachi, director of the Institute of Biogenesis Research at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, and his associates are continuing to use their "Honolulu Technique" to improve cloning efficiency and answer basic genetic questions.

Cumulina is displayed in a permanent exhibit in the Biogenesis Research Lab.

Eight of her descendants appear in two parts of a large glass enclosure in the Chicago museum.

Patricia Ward, museum researcher, came here in January 2000 to select some of the clones for the exhibit. "They lived their normal life span, and some actually are still alive," she said in a telephone interview.

Others died, however, and "Dr. Yana's lab very kindly sent us some replacement mice just a couple months ago," she said.

Each mouse enclosure includes a surrogate mother, egg donor, DNA donor and clone. Yanagimachi sent three of each mice to the museum, so there are replacements if needed, Ward said. "It is a lot of work to produce these, so there's a limit to what we can do here."

She said a "great" video of the mice with footage of the nuclear transfer and a story about how they were produced is presented with the exhibit, "Genetics: Decoding Life."

Mutant flies and genetically engineered green-eyed frogs are featured with the cloned mice to illustrate how the study of genes in animals and humans is leading to new information about health and development.

The 7,000-square-foot exhibit is divided into five areas: cloning, genetic engineering, development, mutations and variations, and the human genome. It allows viewers to explore the science of genetics and complex ethical and social issues from the roles of gene therapist, scientist and genetic counselor.

The exhibit explains how and why scientists are studying cloning. Visitors can see DNA and learn how it is transferred from one organism to another to make a clone. They can make a virtual clone by extracting a nucleus from one cell and injecting it into another.

They also can see how genetic engineering has resulted in genetically modified foods and larger supplies of medicines such as insulin, how it makes frogs' eyes glow and how the technique is used to learn more about the eye's development.

Using a simulator, viewers can manipulate genes to create a beetle-resistant potato. They also can express their views on such controversial issues as manipulating gene development in humans.