Institut für Organische Chemie, Universität Leipzig, Johannisallee 29, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2010 May 3;49(20):3418-27. doi: 10.1002/anie.200906967.
When Odysseus left the devastated city of Troy after ten years of siege he could not foresee the perils he still had to face. The encounter with the cyclops, a giant with only one eye placed in the middle of its forehead, was doubtlessly one of the creepiest and most dangerous of his adventures. In the end, Odysseus could only escape with the help of a sheep. Whether Homers cyclops was inspired by the observation of terribly malformed neonates remains speculative. However, when sheep herders in Idaho in the middle of the 20th century faced an increasing number of cyclops-like sheep in their herds, a unique cascade of chemical, biological, and medicinal discoveries was initiated. This Minireview tells this story and shows its impact on modern biomedical research.
当奥德修斯在围攻特洛伊十年后离开这座被摧毁的城市时，他无法预见自己仍将面临的危险。他与独眼巨人的相遇无疑是他最可怕和最危险的冒险之一。最后，奥德修斯只能在一只羊的帮助下逃脱。荷马笔下的独眼巨人是否受到畸形新生儿的启发，这仍然是推测。然而，当 20 世纪中期爱达荷州的牧羊人在他们的羊群中发现越来越多的独眼羊时，一系列独特的化学、生物和医学发现就开始了。这篇综述讲述了这个故事，并展示了它对现代生物医学研究的影响。
