Oncomouse

The OncoMouse or Harvard mouse is a type of <a href="/facts/Laboratory_mouse/jhVnpjg7">laboratory mouse</a> (Mus musculus) that has been <a href="/facts/Genetic_engineering/vwdlDR61">genetically modified</a> using modifications designed by <a href="/facts/Philip_Leder/CMqJ3FyQ">Philip Leder</a> and <a href="/facts/Timothy_A_Stewart/MbeTekqS">Timothy A Stewart</a> of <a href="/facts/Harvard_University/Lhy9L1cx">Harvard University</a> to carry a specific <a href="/facts/Gene/e1swwPY6">gene</a> called an activated <a href="/facts/Oncogene/WLFu6Ma5">oncogene</a> (<a href="/facts/HRAS/BeUvLplb">v-Ha-ras</a> under the control of the <a href="/facts/Mouse_mammary_tumor_virus/ThetEs82">mouse mammary tumor virus</a> promoter). The activated oncogene significantly increases the mouse's susceptibility to <a href="/facts/Cancer/PVW6n1D0">cancer</a>, and thus makes the mouse a suitable model for <a href="/facts/Cancer_research/w7HvoRug">cancer research</a>.
OncoMouse was not the first transgenic mouse to be developed for use in cancer research. <a href="/facts/Ralph_L._Brinster/TbSLAGLo">Ralph L. Brinster</a> and <a href="/facts/Richard_Palmiter/RQNBUfx7">Richard Palmiter</a> had developed such mice previously. However, OncoMouse was the first mammal to be patented. Because <a href="/facts/DuPont/kCUfkJzE">DuPont</a> had funded Philip Leder's research, Harvard University agreed to give DuPont exclusive rights to any inventions commercialized as a result of the funding. <a href="/facts/Patent/LjT2bG3A">Patent</a> applications on the OncoMouse were filed back in the mid-1980s in numerous countries such as in the <a href="/facts/United_States/P0sCdLe5">United States</a>, in <a href="/facts/Canada/D5P9yqs6">Canada</a>, in <a href="/facts/Europe/DTAtrKfh">Europe</a> through the <a href="/facts/European_Patent_Organisation/oxfKq1fF">European Patent Office</a> (EPO) and in <a href="/facts/Japan/U5mz0SRT">Japan</a>. Initially the rights to the OncoMouse invention were owned by DuPont. However, in 2011 the <a href="/facts/USPTO/97KdJB6h">USPTO</a> 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 <a href="/facts/Registered_trademark/B23H8IS0">registered trademark</a>).
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 <a href="/facts/Jackson_Laboratory/3lFuGkw4">Jackson Laboratory</a>, 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. 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.

Oncomouse open-in-new

Oncomouse