In the early 1990s, Microcebus murinus, a small primate endemic to Madagascar, emerged as a potential animal model for the study of aging and Alzheimer’s disease. This paper traces the use of the lesser mouse lemur in research on aging and associated neurodegenerative diseases, focusing on a basic material precondition that made this possible, namely, the conversion of a wild animal into an experimental organism that lives, breeds, and survives in the laboratory. It argues that the “old” mouse lemur model can be considered as an eco-zootechnical acquisition. This is shown by examining how, since the early 1970s, French mouse lemur researchers have articulated colony productivity and viability with the influence of environmental factors on the demographics and physiology of the species. The appearance and maintenance of a growing number of old mouse lemurs in French research facilities are related to three developments: the application of the ecological notion of “social stress” to the understanding and management of the behavior of the captive population; the experimental demonstration that a variety of seasonal physiological changes in the species were influenced by the photoperiod; and the related attempt to accelerate aging in mouse lemurs through the manipulation of annual light conditions.
...More
Article
Johnson, Andi;
(2013)
The Athlete as Model Organism: The Everyday Practice of the Science of Human Performance
(/isis/citation/CBB001320557/)
Article
Stark, Laura;
Campbell, Nancy D.;
(2014)
Stowaways in the History of Science: The Case of Simian Virus 40 and Clinical Research on Federal Prisoners at the US National Institutes of Health, 1960
(/isis/citation/CBB001421652/)
Article
Kärin Nickelsen;
(2017)
The Organism Strikes Back: Chlorella Algae and their Impact on Photosynthesis Research, 1920s–1960s
(/isis/citation/CBB664410909/)
Book
Dewsbury, Donald A.;
(2006)
Monkey Farm: A History of the Yerkes Laboratories of Primate Biology, Orange Park, Florida, 1930--1965
(/isis/citation/CBB000770165/)
Article
Hecht, Gabrielle;
(2002)
Rupture-Talk in the Nuclear Age: Conjugating Colonial Power in Africa
(/isis/citation/CBB000300600/)
Article
Sio, Fabio De;
(2011)
Leviathan and the Soft Animal: Medical Humanism and the Invertebrate Models for Higher Nervous Functions, 1950s--90s
(/isis/citation/CBB001230171/)
Article
Schlünder, Martina;
(2012)
Wissens-Hunger im Stall: Die Entstehung von Knochen-Schafen als Versuchstiere in der Unfallchirurgie
(/isis/citation/CBB001211075/)
Article
Per-Anders Svärd;
Helena Tinnerholm Ljungberg;
(2021)
Fetal and animal research in Sweden: The construction of viable lives in regulatory policy debates, 1970–1980
(/isis/citation/CBB965696186/)
Article
Kirk, Robert G. W.;
(2010)
A Brave New Animal for a Brave New World: The British Laboratory Animals Bureau and the Constitution of International Standards of Laboratory Animal Production and Use, circa 1947--1968
(/isis/citation/CBB000954051/)
Article
García-Sancho, Miguel;
(2012)
From the Genetic to the Computer Program: The Historicity of “Data” and “Computation” in the Investigations on the Nematode Worm C. elegans (1963--1998)
(/isis/citation/CBB001221583/)
Book
Greene, Meg;
(2008)
Jane Goodall: A Biography
(/isis/citation/CBB000774885/)
Article
Ferreira, Aline;
(2008)
Primate Tales: Interspecies Pregnancy and Chimerical Beings
(/isis/citation/CBB001031082/)
Book
Nicolas Langlitz;
(2020)
Chimpanzee Culture Wars
(/isis/citation/CBB054916365/)
Article
Radick, Gregory;
(2006)
What's in a Name? The Vervet Predator Calls and the Limits of the Washburnian Synthesis
(/isis/citation/CBB000770730/)
Essay Review
Kimler, William;
(2012)
Case Studies, Controversy and the “Fieldworker's Regres”s
(/isis/citation/CBB001566820/)
Article
Leonelli, Sabina;
Ankeny, Rachel A.;
(2012)
Re-Thinking Organisms: The Impact of Databases on Model Organism Biology
(/isis/citation/CBB001221584/)
Article
Evans, James A.;
(2010)
Industry Collaboration, Scientific Sharing, and the Dissemination of Knowledge
(/isis/citation/CBB001034684/)
Article
Meunier, Robert;
(2012)
Stages in the Development of a Model Organism as a Platform for Mechanistic Models in Developmental Biology: Zebrafish, 1970--2000
(/isis/citation/CBB001221635/)
Book
Fagan, Melinda Bonnie;
(2013)
Philosophy of Stem Cell Biology: Knowledge in Flesh and Blood
(/isis/citation/CBB001420098/)
Article
Gardner, M. B.;
(2003)
Simian AIDS: An Historical Perspective
(/isis/citation/CBB000430051/)
Be the first to comment!