freshwater+polyp+hydra+sequenced

Freshwater polyp hydra article

March 14, 2010 There is an organism that has about the same amount of genes as humans. It has genes linked with Huntington’s disease and also Alzheimer’s disease. This organism is called Hydra and it is a fresh water polyp. This is very strange because we as humans are so much bigger and different than this fresh water polyp. This organism has been used in biological research for 300 years. The scientist will try to research this organism because of its relation to Huntington’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. They will also use it to find out more about stem cells. This will eventually show great promise for new treatments for a host of injuries and diseases. As of now the Hydra project is in the first genome sequencing effort. Cal Thorne March 15, 2010