Image credit – Dr. Andre Kempe / Getty Images
We’re sure that some of you guys have heard or seen photos of “water bears”, but in case you haven’t, they aren’t really bears. Instead they are a species of microscopic organisms called tardigrades. What makes them so fascinating is how robust they are, which Japanese scientists discovered by freezing them for 30 years and successfully reviving two specimens.
In order to find out how they managed to survive, scientists dug deeper and looked at their genes, and what they found is rather interesting and how it could potentially help humans by protecting human DNA from radiation. This discovery was made by researchers at the University of Tokyo who mapped the entire genome of a species of tardigrades called Ramazzottius varieornatus.
In their findings, they took a sample of human DNA and subjected it to radiation in which unsurprisingly it deteriorated. However when they used it together with the tardigrade protein, they found that the damage caused by radiation was halved, and that the protected cells were still capable of reproducing.
Unfortunately at this point in time, it is too early to tell how these proteins might be used, and if they can be used for treatment, prevention, or simply just augmenting the human body, but it is a rather interesting discovery nonetheless. For more details on the study, head on over to the University of Tokyo’s website.