Humans are being done Selectively breed cats and dogs for thousands of years to create more desirable pets. A new startup called the Los Angeles Project is aimed at speeding up that process with genetic engineering to create dark rabbits, hypoallergenic cats and dogs, and perhaps one day the real unicorns.
The Los Angeles project is the brainchild of biohacker Josie Zayner, who publicly injected Jane’s Editorial Tool’s CRISPR during a meeting in San Francisco in 2017 and streamed it live. “I want to help humans modify themselves genetically.” She said at the time. She also gave herself Fecal transplantation And a DIY covid vaccine He is also the founder and CEO of Odin, a company that sells Home Genetic-Engineering kits.
Now, Zayner wants to create the next generation of pets. “As a human species, I think leveling up animals is like our moral privilege,” she says.
Co-founded with former Tiel Fellow biotechnology entrepreneur Kathy Ty, the Los Angeles project is about making animals that are “more complex, interesting, beautiful and unique” than what is currently in existence. The Austin-based company nods to another controversial effort that developed the first atomic bomb during World War II: the Manhattan Project.
Photo: Los Angeles Project
For the past year, the Los Angeles Project has been operating in stealth mode, but a team of five experiments with frogs, fish, hamsters and rabbit embryos. They used CRISPR to delete the gene and insert a new gene. The latter is more technically difficult to achieve. We are also testing a lesser-known technique known as restriction enzyme-mediated integration or REMI to integrate new DNA into embryos. Making these modifications at the embryonic level changes the resulting animal’s genetic makeup.
The team used CRISPR to add genes to rabbit embryos to produce green fluorescent proteins, or GFP. Zayner says he is aiming to transfer engineering embryos to female rabbits this week. If everything goes well, the company will have a baby bunny that will shine in a month. (Rabbits only have 31-33 days of gestation.)
They are not the first shining animals ever created. GFP is commonly used by scientists to visually track and monitor gene activity or cellular processes within an organism, often studying diseases. Researchers have previously produced fluorescent rodents, monkeys, dogs, cats and rabbits, but none of these animals have been created for commercial purposes. However, the Los Angeles Project is designing enthusiastic bunnies and other animals to sell to consumers. “I think pet space is huge and completely underrated,” says Zayner.
