Description
Book SynopsisBlends scientific biography, institutional history, and cultural history to show how genetically standardized mice came to play a central role in contemporary American biomedical research. This work introduces us to mouse "fanciers" who bred mice for different characteristics, and to the structures of modern biomedical research.
Trade ReviewOne of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2004 "Extremely well written and enjoyable to read... The study of human diseases using standardized animal models has now become routine practice, but its acceptability was established in large part through the use of inbred mice, as Rader convincingly argues."--Rachel A. Ankeny, American Scientist "A brilliant synthesis of scientific, intellectual, and cultural history. Its subject matter is new, and the book's ultimate impact on scientific history will be significant. The product of ten years of research and writing, the tome is polished, cogent, and magnificently documented."--Choice "Karen Rader has written an insightful and, at times, humorous chronological history of the famous Jax mice and their unflagging promoter, C.C. Little... Rader beautifully illustrates the give and take between the scientific community and the general society."--Biology Digest "In this compelling historical analysis, Karen Rader shows how the common mouse (Mus musculus) was transformed into a commodity, manufactured, and marketed not only to American research laboratories, but to politicians, health policy makers, and the members of the general public as well."--Susan E. Lederer, Journal of the History of Biology "Rader's carefully researched and well-produced book will be indispensable reading for everyone interested in the laboratory mouse and more generally in the tools and practices of twentieth-century biomedicine."--Soraya de Chadarevian,Journal of the History of medicine and Allied Sciences
Table of ContentsIllustrations ix Acknowledgments xiii Abbreviations xvii INTRODUCTION: Why Mice? 1 CHAPTER ONE: Mice, Medicine, and Genetics: From Pet Rodents to Research Materials (1900-21) 25 CHAPTER TWO: Experiment and Change: Institutionalizing Inbred Mice (1922-30) 59 CHAPTER THREE: Mice for Sale: Commodifying Research Animals (1930-33) 97 CHAPTER FOUR: A New Deal for Mice: Biomedicine as Big Science (1933-40) 135 CHAPTER FIVE: R X Mouse : JAX Mice in Cancer Research (1938-55) 175 CHAPTER SIX: Mouse Genetics as Public Policy: Radiation Risk in Cold War America (1946-56) 221 EPILOGUE: Animals and the New Biology: Oncomouse and Beyond 251 Bibliography 269 Index 293
