Some say they plan to study the gene in mouse experiments.

The mouse experiments need to be repeated in rabbits and in monkeys, Dr. Schuch said.

Prior data were based on solely on mouse experiments.

Dr. Cech characterized the French mouse experiment as fascinating but not yet fully explicable.

The two mouse experiments made "it very clear that that kind of antibody is protective," Dr. Fauci said.

The mouse experiments were encouraging.

The mouse experiments involved immature muscle cells called myoblasts, which normally help repair muscle fibers that have broken because of injury or exercise.

The mouse experiments' finding that angiostatin and radiation were far more effective in combination than was either agent alone would, if applicable to humans, be important for therapists.

The other mouse experiment, in which mice with mutant prion genes spontaneously developed scrapie, also can be explained without invoking prions as infectious agents, critics say.

"If someone were to try Irv's mouse experiment with a great ape or even a monkey, I'd get real worried," Greely says.