ABSTRACT Genetically modified or ‘transgenic’ mice are a routine experimental tool in biomedical research, commonly produced by injecting DNA into one-cell embryos. These animals were independently invented in 1980 by multiple university groups in the United States and Europe that combined expertise in mouse developmental biology and recombinant DNA techniques, or ‘genetic engineering’. In this article, I examine this multiple invention and argue that research strategies, experimental practices, and funding arrangements that led to transgenic mice are best described as tinkering. These creative and speculative endeavors, combined with partial knowledge of what was happening in competing laboratories, created a fruitful atmosphere for research which led to the multiple invention. The tinkering was, however, underpinned by infrastructures that were crucial to success, some long established, such as mouse supply or embryological tools, and some emerging, such as the informal exchange of isolated genes.

中文翻译：

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修改基因和胚胎：转基因小鼠的多项发明 c． 1980年


摘要 转基因或“转基因”小鼠是生物医学研究中的常规实验工具，通常通过将 DNA 注射到单细胞胚胎中来产生。这些动物是由美国和欧洲的多个大学团体于 1980 年独立发明的，这些团体结合了小鼠发育生物学和重组 DNA 技术（或“基因工程”）的专业知识。在这篇文章中，我研究了这项多项发明，并认为导致转基因小鼠的研究策略、实验实践和资金安排最好被描述为修补。这些创造性和推测性的努力，加上对竞争实验室中发生的事情的部分了解，创造了富有成效的研究氛围，从而导致了多项发明。然而，这种修补是由对成功至关重要的基础设施支撑的，其中一些是长期建立的，例如小鼠供应或胚胎学工具，还有一些是新兴的，例如孤立基因的非正式交换。