Oncomouse (oncogene transgenic mouse, first animal patent)
Oncorratón (ratón transgénico con oncogén, primera patente de un animal)
- Date
- 1984-1988 · confidence high
- Place
- Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
- Credited to
- Philip Leder and Timothy Stewart
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
Leder and Stewart introduced the myc oncogene under a mammary promoter into the mouse and obtained animals that almost invariably developed breast tumours. The US Patent Office granted it in 1988 the first patent on a modified animal.
The paper appeared in Cell in 1984 and US patent 4,736,866 was granted on 12 April 1988, with DuPont as licensee. Canada rejected the patentability of higher mammals in 2002.
What it led to
- mouse cancer models for testing drugs and studying oncogenes
- ethical and legal debate on animal patents (Canada rejected it in 2002)
- the family of disease-model mice now built with CRISPR