In this Jan. 18, 2013 photo provided by the NYU Langone Medical Center, a researcher holds a laboratory mouse in a research building at the hospital's complex in New York. During Superstorm Sandy on Oct. 29, 2012, a storm surge flooded the basement housing some 7,000 cages of mice used for studying cancer, diabetes, brain development and other health issues. Each cage held up to five of the little rodents, and even four months later, nobody knows exactly how many perished. (AP Photo/New York University)
(AP)—When Superstorm Sandy struck a New York hospital four months ago, hundreds of patients were safely evacuated, but mice in a nearby research building were not so lucky.
Thousands of special mice that were used in experiments drowned when the basement of that building flooded. Now, scientists at the NYU Langone Medical Center are pursuing a long, slow effort to replace them.
This Jan. 18, 2013 photo provided by the NYU Langone Medical Center shows genetically engineered mice used to model human diseases in a cage with nesting material in a research building at the hospital's complex in New York. During Superstorm Sandy on Oct. 29, 2012, a storm surge flooded the basement housing some 7,000 cages of mice used for studying cancer, diabetes, brain development and other health issues. Each cage held up to five of the little rodents, and even four months later, nobody knows exactly how many perished. (AP Photo/New York University)
What the researchers lost in a few minutes one terrible night in October will take more than a year to recover, at a cost of tens of millions of dollars. That's because, for the most part, they can't just buy these mice off the shelf. It will take as long as two years to recreate some types of mice that have specific genetic mutations.
In this Jan. 18, 2013 photo provided by the NYU Langone Medical Center, a technician examines mice in order to determine their clinical health in a research building at the hospital's complex in New York. During Superstorm Sandy on Oct. 29, 2012, a storm surge flooded the basement housing some 7,000 cages of mice used for studying cancer, diabetes, brain development and other health issues. Each cage held up to five of the little rodents, and even four months later, nobody knows exactly how many perished. (AP Photo/New York University)
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Scientists focus on another Sandy loss—lab mice (2013, March 6)
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