The humble Chinese hamster has played a vital role in medical advances for more than a century, thanks to its biological makeup.

Native to the deserts of northern China, the hamsters, whose scientific name is Cricetulus griseus, were first used by Chinese scientists for medical research in the early 1900s. By the middle of the century, they were being used for experiments in the U.S.: A University of Colorado scientist became the first to culture cells from the ovaries of a female in 1957.

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