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Celebrating 90 years

Celebrating 90 years at The Jackson Laboratory Saturday, May 4, 2019 marked the 90th anniversary of the founding of The Jackson Laboratory. On that date in 1929, our visionary founder Clarence Cook Little launched the lab with eight employees and $50,000 in support from benefactors, along with a gift of land from family friend George B. Dorr.

Since then, JAX has grown tremendously. Today, JAX employs nearly 3,000 people and operates locations in three U.S. states, and internationally in Japan and China. Our scope and impact are truly global. Our mission has expanded to encompass human genomics as well as mammalian genetics, and our science has evolved with new discoveries and technologies that were unimaginable 90 years ago.

Among the countless discoveries, milestones, experiences and periods of growth, we chose some of those that best represent who and what JAX is.

Moments in time

A growing place with big ideasOver nine decades, mice have become standardized technologies for experimentation. Today big data has enabled a new way to explore the genome.a-growing-place-with-big-ideas

Translation to medicine: The Maine Cancer Genomics InitiativeThe Jackson Laboratory’s bold effort to bring advanced cancer diagnostics and treatment to community hospitals across Maine has already enrolled more than 500 cancer patients for advanced testing.translation-to-medicine

Toward genomic medicineThe vision for creating JAX’s genomic medicine campus, building upon JAX’s mammalian genetics expertise to discover the precise genomic causes of human disease and develop individualized diagnostics, treatments and cures, was truly transformational. jax-in-connecticut

Cancer research: the gateway to genetic medicineC.C. Little’s pursuit of cancer genetics through genetically defined laboratory mice that would lay the groundwork for nine decades of advances in cancer diagnosis and treatment. cancer-research-the-gateway-to-genetic-medicine

'Captains in the Cancer War': Life magazine of March 1, 1937C.C. Little was among those touted as the "Captains in the Cancer War" in a 1937 issue of Life magazine.captains-in-the-cancer-war

The birth of medical geneticsJAX shares its peerless expertise in all things laboratory mouse through scientific courses, conferences, workshops and webinars. At least one of these has changed the course of biomedical research.the-birthplace-of-medical-genetics

The making of the 'Live Linkage Map'In 1958, JAX would exhibit a live linkage map of the mouse with mutant mice—in boxes, of course—at the correct position on a large-scale background of the lines representing linkage groups.the-birth-of-medical-genetics

Our community: Chen K. Chai and Ling Chi MaoOver nine decades, JAX and its people — who came from Bar Harbor, Maine, from across the nation and from dozens of other countries — would become an essential part of local communities in Maine, California and Connecticut. chen-chai-and-ling-chi-mao

George Snell's Nobel-winning workGeorge Snell shared the 1980 Nobel Prize for the work he had conducted nearly four decades earlier at JAX, establishing the genetic factors that govern the body’s ability to distinguish the difference between its own tissues and foreign invaders—work that paved the way for life-saving organ transplantation.george-snells-nobel-prize-winning-work

Rescued from the 1947 fireThere were a few minor victories against the Great Fire of 1947 that wiped out The Jackson Laboratory and most of the town of Bar Harbor in October that year. rescued-from-the-1947-fire