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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.'"

10 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. Uhmmm.... by mark-t · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Does not the deliberate creation of a living creature to have a specific disability of some sort seem in some way cruel or inhumane? Or is it just me?

    --
    File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
  4. 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.
  5. 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.

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

    Does this count as intelligent design?

  7. Isn't it more cruel or inhumane.. by drgonzo59 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Not to conduct such research on mice and let hundreds of thousands of people die of heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Mice in-vivo and in-vitro tissue models are invalueble to heart, diabetes and cancer research. They are mammals, they breed fast and a lot is already know about them.

    I work in a heart research lab where we cut the hearts out of the mice and attach them to a working heart machine and pump a blood subsitute through it. Then we test various drugs and load conditions on it. The question is would you like to volunteer so that we test the drugs first on you, or your older family members, instead of the mice so as to spare their lives? Or would you rather be assured that in hundreds of mamalian tests the durgs performed as they are supposed to and the effects are clear and reproducible.

    We abide by the rules and anaesthesize the mice carefully, we don't torture them and try to do the best we can to minimize their suffering. Personally I wish we didn't have to do this, I don't like to kill things -- animals or people, but in this case it is worth it to save many human lives.

  8. 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!

  9. Re:The mice are evil anyway by drgonzo59 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I had mice at home when I was 15. A female gave birth to 6 young ones. Then after she was done, she ate the heads of two of her babies. I was quite upset, as I was waiting for the new mice and wanting to see her take care of them and nurse them and protect them. Eventually I let them all go free. No more mice for me, except at the lab were we experiment on them.

    But that wasn't the mice's fault. It was mine -- I had human expectations for them. People constantly anthropomorphize animals. They think of them as people and assign them human qualities.. "Dog are compassionate", "Mice are cute". That can go either way. The PETA people assign them all these noble qualities and protect the animals as if they are people. People who work in labs see the mice eat their babies and think how "evil" and "disgusting they are, they almost deserve to be experimented on". The truth is, it is neither, the are not moral, they just do what the instincts tell them to do.