We’re having a special sale on defective mice!
When you come from the rural Northeast, as I do, you wonder what people do for a living. Lots of deserted roads, pretty countryside, expensive houses and high heating bills — how do people survive?
In Bar Harbor, Maine, they are getting into the lucrative business of mouse ranching. This company in the heart of lobster country is providing genetic-engineered mice with precise ailments to the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. Check it out on CNN.com at “Mighty Mice for Sale.”
The story is about the high price that genetically-tailored lab mice are getting in the healthcare research industry. It’s pretty interesting — want three blind mice? No problem. You want three blind mice with epilepsy? Also no problem, but it’ll cost you. If you want a custom mouse to your own specs, it can go into the tens of thousands!
The existence of this industry leads me to a couple conclusions:
First, we’re going to be increasing innovation in of pharmaceutical and biotech therapies. Much research relies on repeating the results of a certain compound on a specific illness. The genetic engineering aspect here guarantees that researchers will be comparing apples to apples, or in this case mice-with-bladder-cancer to mice-with-bladder-cancer.
Secondly, considering the advances in the understanding of the human genome, this genetic engineering experience will one day be applied to humans. I’m not sure when, but with 50 years (probably much sooner) the custom creation of mice (with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancer, etc) will be applicable to humans (blue eyes, musical ability, low body fat, etc).
We’ve got a lot of ethical considerations to make.
-Garland