‘Supermouse’ is reality

Scientists have been astounded by the creation of a genetically modified “supermouse” with extraordinary physical abilities – comparable to the performance of the very best athletes – raising the prospect that the discovery may one day be used to transform people’s capacities.
The mouse can run up to six kilometers (3.7 miles) at a speed of 20 meters per minute for five hours or more without stopping. Scientists said that this was equivalent of a man cycling at speed up an Alpine mountain without a break. Although it eats up to 60 percent more food than an ordinary mouse, the modified mouse does not put on weight, It also lives longer and enjoys an active sex life well into old age – being capable of breeding as three times the normal maximum age.
Professor Hanson, who led the 15-strong team of researchers, said that the first supermouse was created about four years ago by injecting a highly active form of a gene for an enzyme called phosphonenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK_C) into a mouse embryo. The results of studies on the mice are published for the first time in the Journal of Biological Chemistry earlier this month.