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Designer Mice Made to Order

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the time-to-start-a-mouse-farm dept.

blackbearnh writes "CNN is reporting about the world of designer mice. No, not the kind you click, the kind that scamper around and eat cheese. An effort is underway to produce mice with each of the 20-25,000 individual mouse genes "knocked out", which could lead to novel new treatments for humans. It turns out that after fully sequencing the mouse genome, the little fellas are almost identical to humans. From the article: 'A mouse with arthritis runs close to $200; two pairs of epileptic mice can cost 10 times that. You want three blind mice? That'll run you about $250. And for your own custom mouse, with the genetic modification of your choosing, expect to pay as much as $100,000.'"

7 of 382 comments (clear)

  1. would you? by dotpavan · · Score: 5, Funny
    A mouse with arthritis runs close to $200; two pairs of epileptic mice can cost 10 times that. You want three blind mice? That'll run you about $250. And for your own custom mouse, with the genetic modification of your choosing, expect to pay as much as $100,000.'"

    Oh, and Would you like to have fries with it?

    1. Re:would you? by Lev13than · · Score: 5, Funny

      To: Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME
      Re: Genetically modified mice

      Dear Sir,

      I understand that you are in the business of breeding custom-designed mice. I find this quite fascinating, as I require custom animals for my experiments. Do you, by chance, have any specimens which are flexible, clawless and agoraphobic?

      Regards,
      R. Gere

      --
      When you have nothing left to burn you must set yourself on fire
  2. Laser Mouse? by compuguy84 · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...Priceless...

  3. Profit! by cowboy76Spain · · Score: 5, Funny

    1. Catch three normal mice somewhere
    2. !!!!!!
    3. Sell three blind mice for $250
    4. Profit!

    --
    Why can't /. have a rich-text editor? Editing your own HTML is so XXth century.
  4. Re: Designer Mice Made to Order by JeanBaptiste · · Score: 5, Funny

    Can you make them with the cheese already inside?

    That would really save me a lot of trouble...

    I prefer Mozzerella.

    Thanks in advance.

  5. Intelligent Design by RedHatLinux · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does this count as intelligent design?

  6. They've got it backwards by kjots · · Score: 5, Funny

    No no no, you've got it all wrong! It's the mice that have genetically reprogrammed us to have arthritis, epilipsy and/or obesity! It's all part of a long running experiment to discover the true nature of the universe! The fact that the scientist think they're the ones performing the experiments just proves how ingeniously subtle the mice really are!