And at the end of the day, this is only a mouse model, says Vincent Racaniello, a microbiologist at Columbia University.
In another cautionary note, geneticist Wolfgang Enard of the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, who helped discover the difference between human and chimp FOXP2 and has developed a related mouse model, says he so far has failed to find similar chimp-human differences in gene regulation in his own lab.
"Given that features of Rett can be reversed in a mouse model," Dr. Zoghbi said, "one would predict that postnatal disorders like autism and schizophrenia might be reversible".
What does the model "say"?
"Blocking tumor necrosis factor in a mouse model improves asthma," Dr. Remick said.
But William Dove, a geneticist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has been unable to detect early genomic instability in a mouse model of intestinal cancer, and says the theory may not apply to all cancers.
Although the researchers caution that their work does not prove a link between the gene and such diseases, it does provide some very interesting clues, says Steve Moldin of the Genetics Research branch at NIMH. "It's potentially very exciting," he says, because the mouse model might give researchers a chance to uncover the biochemical pathways that control the specific behaviors.
Gordon says that the mouse model of progeria that worries Kennedy may not be the most accurate mimic of the human condition.
That, he says, suggests that the widely used mouse model of cystic fibrosis "might not be appropriate".
Until now, he said, "to get funding, you had to propose experiments using the mouse model".
