All you need to know about: transgenic research Premium

Trump misstated $8 million spent on transgender mice, sparking debate on transgenic research and its importance in science.

Lately in the news after United States President Donald Trump famously misstated that “USD 8 million had been spent for making mice transgender.” This was followed by House laughter and sneers from Republicans on cue, and then Trump brought up tail by claiming: “This is real.” However, the internet nearly immediately exploded to correct him: It should have been transgenic mice, not mice who plead to have their gender changed.

But what does transgenic actually mean, then? 

The root word trans means from ‘one to another’, and genetic is used in relation to genes. Transgenic refers to an organism or cell whose genome has been altered by the introduction of one or more foreign DNA sequences from another species by artificial means. Transgenic organisms are generated in the laboratory for research purposes, as per the National Human Genome Research Institute.   

Fact-checkers in the U.S. reported that it might not have been a misstatement, speculating that Mr. Trump was probably referring to report from the White Coat Waste Project, a watchdog group opposing government-funded animal research, which had claimed that over $10 million had been spent on projects involving transgender mice, rats, and monkeys. This report managed to gather moss as it rolled among the conservatives, prompting the erroneous and quite homophobic charge that precious taxpayer funds were being misused in unnecessary research.  

Media reports from the United States, following Trump’s remarks, stated that the White House responded by sharing a list of National Institutes of Health grants. The press release listed six studies from the database of federally-funded research projects that used mice treated with hormones and researched different aspects of gender-affirming care. This included studies on mice in the area of hormone therapy and HIV vaccine, reproductive consequences of steroid hormone administration, the impact of testosterone therapy on breast cancer, a study on how gender-affirming hormone therapy affects the microbiome, analysing androgen effects on the reproductive neuroendocrine axis and how hormones influence asthma outcomes.  

The money was not spent to make mice transgendered.  

Transgenic animals actually include a variety of species such as fish, poultry, rabbits, pigs, sheep, goats, cattle, apart from mice. Transgenic mice have been used in genetic studies for a long time now. Linear fragments of DNA can be integrated into the genome in a random fashion. If the gene-modified chromosome enters the germline cells, it can be passed onto the progeny, which thereby contain permanently-altered genomes and are then said to be transgenic, explain Udayan Guha et al, in a chapter on transgenic mice in cancer research in the Encyclopedia of Cancer (Second Edition).