A transgenic mouse designed to grow more hair than other mice has provided University of Southern California researchers with some surprising results-and insight into the development and regulation of growth in epithelial organs that extend beyond skin and hair. In an upcoming paper in the American Journal of Pathology—now available online—Cheng-Ming Chuong, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pathology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, and his colleagues describe the creation of a mouse in which a particular gene-called noggin-is overexpressed in the skin. (Noggin works by suppressing the action of a protein called bone morphogenic protein, or BMP, which has a key role in a number of developmental pathways in mice and humans alike.)
