"The Mouse That Changed Science", Distillations Podcast and transcript, Episode 236, November 16, 2018, Science History Institute
The OncoMouse or Harvard mouse is a type of laboratory mouse (Mus musculus) that has been genetically modified using modifications designed by Philip Leder and Timothy A Stewart[1] of Harvard University to carry a specific gene called an activated oncogene (v-Ha-ras under the control of the mouse mammary tumor virus promoter). The activated oncogene significantly increases the mouse's susceptibility to cancer, and thus makes the mouse a suitable model for cancer research.[2][3]
OncoMouse was not the first transgenic mouse to be developed for use in cancer research. Ralph L. Brinster and Richard Palmiter had developed such mice previously. However, OncoMouse was the first mammal to be patented. Because DuPont had funded Philip Leder's research, Harvard University agreed to give DuPont exclusive rights to any inventions commercialized as a result of the funding.[4] Patent applications on the OncoMouse were filed back in the mid-1980s in numerous countries such as in the United States, in Canada, in Europe through the European Patent Office (EPO) and in Japan. Initially the rights to the OncoMouse invention were owned by DuPont. However, in 2011 the USPTO decided that the final patent actually expired in 2005, which meant that the Oncomouse became free for use by other parties (although the name is not, as "OncoMouse" is a registered trademark[2][3]).
The patenting of OncoMouse had a significant effect on mouse geneticists, who had previously shared their information and mice from their colonies openly. Once a strain of mice had been first described in published research, mice were stored and acquired through Jackson Laboratory, a nonprofit research institute. The patenting of OncoMouse, and the breadth of the claims made in those patents, were considered to be unreasonable by many of their contemporaries.[4] More broadly, the patenting of OncoMouse was a first step in shifting academic research away from a culture of open and free (or very inexpensive) shared resources towards a commercial culture of expensive proprietary purchase and licensing requirements. This shift was felt far beyond the mouse genetics community. Harvard later said that it regretted the handling of the OncoMouse patents.[4]
^European Patent Register entry for European patent no. 0169672, under "Inventor(s)". Consulted on February 22, 2008.
^ ab Trademark: USPTO serial number 75797027
^ abCrouch, Dennis (September 18, 2012). "Harvard's US OncoMouse Patents are All Expired (For the Time Being)". Patently-O. Retrieved 21 April 2013. For now, however, it appears that the mice are finally free although their title (OncoMouse) is still a registered trademark owned by DuPont
^ abc"The Mouse That Changed Science: Distillations Podcast and Transcript, Episode 236". Distillations. Science History Institute. November 16, 2018. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
The OncoMouse or Harvard mouse is a type of laboratory mouse (Mus musculus) that has been genetically modified using modifications designed by Philip...
1988, expired April 12, 2005) to Harvard College claiming a mouse (the "oncomouse") as “a transgenic non-human mammal whose germ cells and somatic cells...
referred to as the oncomouse case, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that higher life forms were not patentable subject matter. The OncoMouse was one of the...
cells, and the production of new types of experimental mice such as the oncomouse (cancer mouse) for research.[citation needed] Neural engineering (also...
Donna Haraway (1997) Modest Witness Second Millennium FemaleMan Meets OncoMouse, Routledge, New York, NY N. Katherine Hayles (1999) How We Became Posthuman:...
2021-01-02. Retrieved 2020-12-16. "Bioethics and Patent Law: The Case of the Oncomouse". www.wipo.int. Archived from the original on 2020-12-11. Retrieved 2020-12-16...
engineered animal model. They have been used to study and model cancer (the oncomouse), obesity, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, substance abuse, anxiety...
Leder were granted a patent on a genetically engineered mammal. This "oncomouse" patent was the first to be issued covering a higher life form. From 1984...
of nature through technology is also a theme explored by Haraway. The OncoMouse is a laboratory mouse genetically modified to carry a specific gene which...
Court of Canada which upholds Canadian Patent Board's refusal to patent Oncomouse (Harvard Mouse Case). $4 billion committed to Toxic Waste Site Clean Up...
In vivo capabilities included: non-invasive in vivo optical imaging, OncoMouse studies, and in vivo compound evaluations for safety assessment and drug...
narrative of Haraway's book, ModestWitness@Second-Millennium:FeMaleMan-Meets-OncoMouse™. Her paintings have appeared in many other texts, not as collaborations...
its embryo to increase susceptibility to cancer, became known as the "oncomouse" and has been used in the laboratory study of cancer therapies. In 1968...
human disease in these mice then allows treatments to be tested. The oncomouse is a type of laboratory mouse that has been genetically modified developed...
smoking, nonsmoking, or diseased pariah?" The official mascot of DPN is the oncomouse. This animal was chosen as the editors felt they were natural pariahs...
stem cells. In another example, a genetically modified mouse, dubbed the Oncomouse, that is useful for studying cancer, was patented by Harvard University...
Global Information
"The Mouse That Changed Science", Distillations Podcast and transcript, Episode 236, November 16, 2018, Science History Institute