IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB001510361

Animal Breeding in the Age of Biotechnology: The Investigative Pathway behind the Cloning of Dolly the Sheep (2015)

García-Sancho, Miguel (Author)

History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences
Volume: 37, no. 3
Issue: 3
Pages: 282-304

DOI: 10.1007/s40656-015-0078-6

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Academia.edu

Animal genetics Genetics Agriculture Sheep Breeding Biotechnology Experiments and experimentation Health Livestock 20th century, late Edinburgh

This paper addresses the 1996 cloning of Dolly the sheep, locating it within a long-standing tradition of animal breeding research in Edinburgh. Far from being an end in itself, the cell-nuclear transfer experiment from which Dolly was born should be seen as a step in an investigative pathway that sought the production of medically relevant transgenic animals. By historicising Dolly, I illustrate how the birth of this sheep captures a dramatic redefinition of the life sciences, when in the 1970s and 1980s the rise of neo-liberal governments and the emergence of the biotechnology market pushed research institutions to show tangible applications of their work. Through this broader interpretative framework, the Dolly story emerges as a case study of the deep transformations of agricultural experimentation during the last third of the twentieth century. The reorganisation of laboratory practice, human resources and institutional settings required by the production of transgenic animals had unanticipated consequences. One of these unanticipated effects was that the boundaries between animal and human health became blurred. As a result of this, new professional spaces emerged and the identity of Dolly the sheep was reconfigured, from an instrument for livestock improvement in the farm to a more universal symbol of the new cloning age.

...More

Included in

Article Parolini, Giuditta (2015) Charting the History of Agricultural Experiments. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences (pp. 231-241). unapi

Citation URI

https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001510361/

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Thesis Matz, Brendan A.; (2011)
Crafting Heredity: The Art and Science of Livestock Breeding in the United States and Germany, 1860--1914 (/isis/citation/CBB001567276/)

Article Calvert, Scout; (2013)
Certified Angus, Certified Patriot: Breeding, Bodies, and Pedigree Practices (/isis/citation/CBB001320575/)

Article Radick, Gregory; (2013)
The Professor and the Pea: Lives and Afterlives of William Bateson's Campaign for the Utility of Mendelism (/isis/citation/CBB001211905/)

Article Theunissen, Bert; (2012)
Breeding for Nobility or for Production? Cultures of Dairy Cattle Breeding in the Netherlands, 1945--1995 (/isis/citation/CBB001250836/)

Article Tuunainen, Juha; (2001)
Constructing Objects and Transforming Experimental Systems (/isis/citation/CBB000101048/)

Book Bert Theunissen; (2020)
Beauty Or Statistics: Practice and Science in Dutch Livestock Breeding, 1900-2000 (/isis/citation/CBB892989234/)

Article Brandt, Christina; (2010)
Zeitschichten des Klons. Anmerkungen zu einer Begriffsgeschichte (/isis/citation/CBB001021197/)

Book Franklin, Sarah; (2013)
Biological Relatives: IVF, Stem Cells, and the Future of Kinship (/isis/citation/CBB001422164/)

Article Miguel García-Sancho; Dmitriy Myelnikov; (2019)
Between mice and sheep: Biotechnology, agricultural science and animal models in late-twentieth century Edinburgh (/isis/citation/CBB803418234/)

Article Milne, Anne; (2010)
Sentient Genetics: Breeding the Animal Breeder as Fundamental Other (/isis/citation/CBB001032694/)

Article Clare Button; (2018)
James Cossar Ewart and the Origins of the Animal Breeding Research Department in Edinburgh, 1895–1920 (/isis/citation/CBB414991374/)

Chapter Orel, Vítězslav; (2002)
Animal Breeding and Disease Control in the Context of the Origin and the Development of Genetics, 1800--1950 (/isis/citation/CBB000773743/)

Article Williams, R. B.; (2014)
The Birth, Death and Resurrection of the “Geneticologists” (/isis/citation/CBB001202226/)

Article Theunissen, Bert; (2008)
Breeding without Mendelism: Theory and Practice of Dairy Cattle Breeding in the Netherlands, 1900--1950 (/isis/citation/CBB000850681/)

Book Franklin, Sarah; (2007)
Dolly Mixtures: The Remaking of Genealogy (/isis/citation/CBB000772371/)

Article Grasseni, Cristina; (2007)
Managing Cows: An Ethnography of Breeding Practices and Uses of Reproductive Technology in Contemporary Dairy Farming in Lombardy (Italy) (/isis/citation/CBB000701057/)

Article Pérez de la Vega, Marcelino; (2016)
Contribución de las leguminosas a la investigación genética. Una perspectiva histórica desde la genética mendeliana a la secuenciación masiva (/isis/citation/CBB201860345/)

Chapter Grasseni, Cristina; (2007)
Good Looking: Learning to Be a Cattle Breeder (/isis/citation/CBB000953727/)

Article Wolfe, Audra J.; (2012)
The Cold War Context of the Golden Jubilee, Or, Why We Think of Mendel as the Father of Genetics (/isis/citation/CBB001250825/)

Book Sheila Jasanoff; Sang-Hyun Kim; (2015)
Dreamscapes of Modernity: Sociotechnical Imaginaries and the Fabrication of Power (/isis/citation/CBB690565115/)

Comments

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}