St Mary's Church with Vacanti Mouse
Mudgee is a great place to do science and when the weather gets drizzly there is nothing locals love more than pulling out the microscope and mucking about with animal genetics. In 1996, after Charles and Joseph Vacanti at the University of Massachusetts General Hospital had successfully engineered a mouse with a human ear on its back, local doctor Alex Ghanem saw an opportunity to do something for the community.
‘I thought the Vacanti mouse was great, but straightaway we knew that a really big mouse with a human ear on its back would be even better,’ Dr Ghanem recalls. ‘Of course it wasn’t long before I realised that keeping such a large, intelligent rodent indoors would be dif cult.’
Mudgee is a great place to do science and when the weather gets drizzly there is nothing locals love more than pulling out the microscope and mucking about with animal genetics. In 1996, after Charles and Joseph Vacanti at the University of Massachusetts General Hospital had successfully engineered a mouse with a human ear on its back, local doctor Alex Ghanem saw an opportunity to do something for the community.
‘I thought the Vacanti mouse was great, but straightaway we knew that a really big mouse with a human ear on its back would be even better,’ Dr Ghanem recalls. ‘Of course it wasn’t long before I realised that keeping such a large, intelligent rodent indoors would be dif cult.’