Two Freeze-Dried Transgenic Mice, 1988
The work at Harvard Medical School that led to these mice was done in 1984. To permit developments in cancer research, a gene that led to a particular cancer was implanted in the mice. This was subsequently inherited and carried through the strain. In 1988 the US Patent Office issued a patent for this development. The patent on 'higher life forms' was permitted in the USA, but in Europe it was vigorously contested. This work remains controversial to this day.