Mice or meece?
October 31, 2005 7:40 PM   Subscribe

Ever wonder where lab mice come from? [warning: flash.]
posted by Jon-o (20 comments total)
 
I stumbled onto this via the Google ads on a blog. I wondered, "Who, exactly, do they think is reading this blog that they'd advertise lab mice here?" Anyway, I thought this web page was hysterical and thought I'd share it.
posted by Jon-o at 7:40 PM on October 31, 2005


See also.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 7:49 PM on October 31, 2005


It's nice to know that the mousies surf and have fun.
posted by longsleeves at 7:54 PM on October 31, 2005


When does the escape planning start?
posted by travis vocino at 7:55 PM on October 31, 2005


I've been courting OzGene as potential customers for my genetically-engineered-mouse-tracking-database-software for some time (Hey! I've been in that basement!).
posted by Turtles all the way down at 7:59 PM on October 31, 2005


This is so surreal. And awesome. I wish I was in the market for some Australian GM mices.

Is that the Village People (in mice form) on the Media page?

(Don't miss the Japanese page.)
posted by smackfu at 8:05 PM on October 31, 2005


I wish I was in the market for some Australian GM mices

I wonder how they're delivered. Maybe we should all chip in and buy some mice.
posted by Jon-o at 8:14 PM on October 31, 2005


I wonder how they're delivered.

I can tell you that! They're delivered in a cardboard box--about the size of a pizza box if you made it about 5 inches thicker. Instead of airholes--these are very precious mice which must remain 'sterile' in a sense--there are gaps in the sides of the box that are covered with a kind of paper filter material. (People at customs often poke they're fingers through this filter material, which may render the mice worthless.) The mice are provided with food and water, of course; if you're sending mice on your own, vs. from a company, apple slices do very well in providing the mice both.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 8:35 PM on October 31, 2005


OMG: "their" of course.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 8:36 PM on October 31, 2005


I clicked the "mates" link, figuring it had to do with mouse mating, and I thought it would be about germline transmission, F1 and F2 generations, etcetera, but ... they mean mates as in friends and it's just a bunch of links to other sites.
Silly Aussies.
posted by easternblot at 9:20 PM on October 31, 2005


jax.org, criver.com, taconic.com
posted by NucleophilicAttack at 9:24 PM on October 31, 2005


For those mice with the naughty gene
posted by Rumple at 9:51 PM on October 31, 2005


$600! Go to the store and buy a butcher's cleaver...
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 11:26 PM on October 31, 2005


heh, I was expecting a flash movie about yiffing or something...this is *way* stranger.
posted by gren at 2:40 AM on November 1, 2005


If you're in the States, mice generally come from here. I'll have to admit the Jackson Lab website isn't nearly as fun as Ozgene's.

You should also note that Jackson Lab is sited in one of the more beautiful places on earth, Bar Harbor, Maine.
posted by SteveInMaine at 6:06 AM on November 1, 2005


If you're in the States, mice generally come from here.

Mice from the Jackson Lab go all over the world, not just around the U.S. From their web site: Each year, the Laboratory supplies approximately 2 million JAX® Mice to the global research community from more than 2,700 varieties, 97% of which are available only from The Jackson Laboratory.

Two million mice a year! I'm about a mile down the road from the place, often use their library when I feel like getting out of the house, and have many times talked about the Lab while leading bus tours through Acadia National Park. (Along one section of Acadia's Park Loop Road, you have park land on the right, and lab property on the left.)

It's interesting to me how little known the Lab is despite its importance over the last 75 years. (I think they're trying to have it both ways — be well-known enough to attract grant and research money, yet stay below the radar of animal rights protestors.) Check out this list of what's come about as a result of research there, including tissue, organ, and bone marrow transplants in humans; and the world's first computer databases for mammalian genetics.

Access to the mouse areas is strictly controlled, and almost no one is allowed in. So even though I've never heard of such things, maybe — just like the OzGene mice — they're in there riding surfboards.
posted by LeLiLo at 7:21 AM on November 1, 2005


It's always weird to explain to my friends about the Jackson Lab -- my mom is a researcher there. "Well, it's the world center for mouse genetics. But it's on the coast of Maine. And it's difficult to get too easily in the winter."

Second Lelilo's comment about the mouse areas. I've been to the lab many times, but never seen the breeding zones. There was a big fire there about 10-15 years ago that had moderately serious repercussions in terms of slowing down some research nationwide.
posted by printdevil at 8:29 AM on November 1, 2005


AAAAhhh ha ha ha ha! The model number on that guillotine... DCAP. De-cap! Someone had fun with that I see.

God I'm a geek.

I once personally dispatched 48 small rodents in one day using such a device. For quick, humane brain collection, much more user-friendly than a butcher knife, TOCT. The decap results in instant death, which is actually amazingly more humane than a lethal sedative or suffocation.
posted by caution live frogs at 10:16 AM on November 1, 2005


I initially misread that as "quick human brain collection," which made sense but... well, I'm glad I took a second look.
posted by languagehat at 10:33 AM on November 1, 2005


I actually heard a lecture from a guy the other day about a facility which breeds mice and goats and pigs for "genetic work."

Some of the crowd sort of mumbled and the guy responded with something like "oh come on, they're worth millions of dollars so they are well taken care of."

I wonder what a million dollar goat eats for breakfast...
posted by shoepal at 7:36 PM on November 1, 2005


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