if you say ‘patients’ when you mean ‘genetically modified mice’
June 23, 2020 3:48 PM Subscribe
Just Says In Mice retweets headlines touting new studies with the important and oft-omitted modifier "IN MICE".
The explanation: "Reporting preliminary animal research out of context. Often the easiest way to fix it is appending a simple suffix: IN MICE."
An example: Neurobiologists Discover an “On/Off” Switch for Pain IN MICE
The explanation: "Reporting preliminary animal research out of context. Often the easiest way to fix it is appending a simple suffix: IN MICE."
An example: Neurobiologists Discover an “On/Off” Switch for Pain IN MICE
Can't wait to add this to my next fortune cookie
posted by The otter lady at 4:16 PM on June 23, 2020 [10 favorites]
posted by The otter lady at 4:16 PM on June 23, 2020 [10 favorites]
The otter lady: Can't wait to add this to my next fortune cookie
You have a yearning for perfection in mice.
posted by clawsoon at 4:26 PM on June 23, 2020 [4 favorites]
You have a yearning for perfection in mice.
posted by clawsoon at 4:26 PM on June 23, 2020 [4 favorites]
Clawsoon: Advice, when most needed, is least heeded in mice.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:30 PM on June 23, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:30 PM on June 23, 2020 [4 favorites]
ricochet biscuit: All your hard work will soon pay off in mice.
posted by Horkus at 4:32 PM on June 23, 2020 [12 favorites]
posted by Horkus at 4:32 PM on June 23, 2020 [12 favorites]
👍
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:34 PM on June 23, 2020
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:34 PM on June 23, 2020
For any neurobiologist: Nothing is so much to be feared as fear in mice.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 4:44 PM on June 23, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 4:44 PM on June 23, 2020 [1 favorite]
I love Just Says In Mice, but i dropped in to acknowledge being rickrolled to a Vox article billed as Vice. Well played, well played.
posted by sjswitzer at 5:09 PM on June 23, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by sjswitzer at 5:09 PM on June 23, 2020 [3 favorites]
I once heard a very distinguished visiting lecturer say and I'm paraphrasing, but only a little: "We've improved mouse-heimers plenty, but translating it to humans has always been where it fails."
posted by cobaltnine at 5:27 PM on June 23, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by cobaltnine at 5:27 PM on June 23, 2020 [3 favorites]
Someone should see if we can cure overreaction to university press releases in mice.
posted by condour75 at 5:42 PM on June 23, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by condour75 at 5:42 PM on June 23, 2020 [3 favorites]
This is fantastic. For the last 11 years, my professional career has been in large part pushing back against this exact thing. The difficulty getting journalists to push back themselves against "science by press release" has increased as dedicated science journalism desks have dwindled and clicks/bites have come ever closer to the forefront. I'm a toxicologist and epidemiologist, and every. single. interview I give about my work, or when asked about others' work, includes a bunch of this.
Someone should see if we can cure overreaction to university press releases in mice.
This kind of blasé reaction to a real problem in biomed research is part for the course, but in my lab we feel the pinch of grant purse strings that are still tied to success IN MICE or some other species, no matter how tenuous the connection to human health impacts. This is changing bit by bit, and thankfully the regulatory sphere doesn't pay any attention to this sort of thing at all (in my time, policies like Tox21 and FDA'S predictive toxicology roadmap have all bit spelled out in bold type, y'all, please spend your money on human relevant biology 'cause we need you to). Which is a large part of the reason I work in the regulated side of my field rather than the r&d side.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 5:55 PM on June 23, 2020 [4 favorites]
Someone should see if we can cure overreaction to university press releases in mice.
This kind of blasé reaction to a real problem in biomed research is part for the course, but in my lab we feel the pinch of grant purse strings that are still tied to success IN MICE or some other species, no matter how tenuous the connection to human health impacts. This is changing bit by bit, and thankfully the regulatory sphere doesn't pay any attention to this sort of thing at all (in my time, policies like Tox21 and FDA'S predictive toxicology roadmap have all bit spelled out in bold type, y'all, please spend your money on human relevant biology 'cause we need you to). Which is a large part of the reason I work in the regulated side of my field rather than the r&d side.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 5:55 PM on June 23, 2020 [4 favorites]
I once heard a very distinguished visiting lecturer say and I'm paraphrasing, but only a little: "We've improved mouse-heimers plenty, but translating it to humans has always been where it fails."
I have a vivid recollection of a panel in a late seventies issue of Mad Magazine to the effect that as scientists continue curing diseases and afflictions in rats, soon we will be faced with millions of healthy, robust rats.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:27 PM on June 23, 2020 [6 favorites]
I have a vivid recollection of a panel in a late seventies issue of Mad Magazine to the effect that as scientists continue curing diseases and afflictions in rats, soon we will be faced with millions of healthy, robust rats.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:27 PM on June 23, 2020 [6 favorites]
I love Just Says In Mice, but i dropped in to acknowledge being rickrolled to a Vox article billed as Vice. Well played, well played.
spamandkimchi forgot to include the link for folks who can't access Medium and hate Twitter IN VICE.
posted by eviemath at 7:11 PM on June 23, 2020 [8 favorites]
spamandkimchi forgot to include the link for folks who can't access Medium and hate Twitter IN VICE.
posted by eviemath at 7:11 PM on June 23, 2020 [8 favorites]
My professional field is autism and, " Autism cured in mice." studies make me absolutely livid. The autism specturm is far too complex with too many unknowns for a mouse study to be useful or relevant. And people with autism don't need to be "cured" - we just have to work together so we can all have good lives.
posted by ITravelMontana at 7:54 PM on June 23, 2020 [8 favorites]
posted by ITravelMontana at 7:54 PM on June 23, 2020 [8 favorites]
Can't wait to add this to my next fortune cookie
I once received a weirdly-specific fortune from a fortune cookie that read "You could prosper in the field of medical research", which was exactly the type of work I was doing at the time. If someone had added "...in mice" it would have been even more accurate.
posted by dephlogisticated at 11:00 PM on June 23, 2020 [7 favorites]
I once received a weirdly-specific fortune from a fortune cookie that read "You could prosper in the field of medical research", which was exactly the type of work I was doing at the time. If someone had added "...in mice" it would have been even more accurate.
posted by dephlogisticated at 11:00 PM on June 23, 2020 [7 favorites]
Hi, person with mouse phobia here, dropping by to lay a curse upon you all for what I have suffered from scrolling through the thread. FIE.
*shudder*
posted by MiraK at 4:59 PM on June 24, 2020
*shudder*
posted by MiraK at 4:59 PM on June 24, 2020
British Left Waffles On Falklands In Mice
Headless Body In Topless Bar In Mice
posted by acb at 2:33 AM on June 25, 2020
Headless Body In Topless Bar In Mice
posted by acb at 2:33 AM on June 25, 2020
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posted by spamandkimchi at 4:15 PM on June 23, 2020 [3 favorites]