A new breed of lab animals, dubbed “glowing head mice,” may do a better job than conventional mice in predicting the success of experimental cancer drugs—while also helping to meet an urgent need for more realistic preclinical animal models. The mice were developed to tolerate often-used light-emitting molecules, such as luciferase from fireflies and green fluorescent protein from jellyfish.

Editor’s note: We asked Werner H. Kirsten Student Internship Program (WHK SIP) mentors to tell us about the unique and diverse backgrounds of some of this year’s student interns.

Three representatives of METAvivor visited NCI at Frederick on April 13 to meet and tour with Balamurugan Kuppusamy, Ph.D., staff scientist in the laboratory of Esta Sterneck, Ph.D., senior investigator, Laboratory of Cell and Developmental Signaling, Center for Cancer Research. The purpose of the visit was to learn more about Kuppusamy’s research. Kuppusamy is a recipient of a $50,000, two-year grant awarded by METAvivor to study the role of the CEBPD-FBXW7 signaling pathway in inflammatory breast cancer.