Los Angeles Project is Genetically-Modifying Pets

A bio-hacking startup called the Los Angeles Project is working on genetically modifying animals to be sold as made-to-order pets.

The Unique Take: Co-founder Dr. Josiah Zayner is an infamous figure in the bio-hacking world, executing some very risky experiments with CRISPR technology to push the boundaries of gene editing. While the Los Angeles Project is seemingly another stunt, it could find a willing clientele among those who love exotic pets (more people than you might think).

Behind the Pens: The Los Angeles Project wants to make pets like glow-in-the-dark rabbits, hypoallergenic cats, and even fabled creatures like unicorns and dragons.

Here’s how the startup is trying to make that happen:

• They create animal embryos by mixing the eggs and sperm of various species (starting with frogs, fish, hamsters, and rabbits) in a petri dish.
• They then use CRISPR to delete or add genes — for example, adding a green fluorescent protein in rabbits (a process already done for scientific research) or removing the Fel d1 protein in cats that makes them an allergen to some people.
• The resulting animals will be spayed and neutered, so they can’t reproduce and mess up ecosystems (imagine all the glow-in-the-dark bunnies).
• The company stresses that no animals are harmed in making these… new animals. However, that may be a matter of perspective, since CRISPR can reportedly cause unintended edits to DNA.

Final Order: Zayner told Wired that he thinks, “as a human species, it’s kind of our moral prerogative to level up animals,” while co-founder Cathy Tie (a former Thiel Fellow) said that the startup hopes to make animals “more complex and interesting and beautiful and unique.” That sounds a bit like Dr. John Hammond in Jurassic Park. Still, Andy Weissman of Union Square Ventures, who personally invested in the startup, said that people will think it’s crazy because “you’re trying to convince people to come into a reality that doesn’t yet exist.”

That may be valid… but let’s make a public promise to stay away from velociraptors, okay?