Humans once Selectively breed cats and dogs to make more ideal pets for thousands of years. A new startup called the Los Angeles Project aims to speed up the process through genetic engineering to make rabbits in the dark, hypoallergenic cats and dogs, and even actual unicorns one day.
The Los Angeles Project is the creative idea of biohacker Josie Zayner, who publicly injected a gene editing tool in 2017 CRISPR At a meeting in San Francisco, and live broadcast. “I want to help human genes modify themselves,” She said at the time. She gave it to herself, too Fecal transplant and DIY Covid Vaccine And is the founder and CEO of Odin, a company that sells home genetic engineering toolkits.
Now, Zayner wants to create the next generation of pets. “I think that as a human being, it’s our moral privilege that can escalate animals,” she said.
Zayner said the Los Angeles project co-founded the Los Angeles project with former Thiel researcher Cathy Tie, which is creating animals that are “more complex, fun, beautiful, unique” than the animals currently in existence. The Austin-based company’s name is a tribute to another controversial effort – the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bomb during World War II.
The Los Angeles project has been in invisible mode for the past year, while its five-person team has been trying out embryos of frogs, fish, hamsters and rabbits. They used CRISPR to delete the gene and insert new genes – the latter is technically difficult to achieve. They also tested a little-known technique called restriction enzyme-mediated integration, or REMI, for integrating new DNA into embryos. These modifications at the embryonic level alter the genetic makeup of the resulting animals.
The team used CRISPR to add genes to rabbit embryos, so they produce green fluorescent protein or GFP. Zayner said their goal is to transfer engineered embryos to female rabbits this week. If all goes well, the company will have glowing baby rabbits within a month. (The pregnancy period of rabbits is only 31 to 33 days.)
They won’t be the first glowing animal ever. Scientists often use GFP to visually and monitor gene activity or cellular processes in organisms, often used to study diseases. Researchers have previously made fluorescent rodents, monkeys, dogs, cats and rabbits, but none of these animals are used for commercial purposes. But the Los Angeles project is designing glowing rabbits and other animals for sale to consumers. “I think pet space is huge and completely underestimated,” Zayner said.
