Philip Leder - Transgenic Non-Human Mammals

The mouse that went to Harvard... was the first animal to be patented in the United States. In the 1980s, Philip Leder devised a method of introducing specific oncogenes (genes with the potential to cause other cells to become cancerous) into mice. The transgenic non-human eukaryotic animal is bred to contract breast cancer for medial research to facilitate carcinogen testing and development of cancer therapies. As you can imagine, the patenting of living organisms (nonhuman) has generated controversy and a lot of public debate on the ethical, religious, economic, and regulatory issues arising from their use.