Genetic Engineering project
Since mid 2015 I’ve been working on adding a new tool to my breeders tool box. Because of recent advances in the field of genetic engineering the price and technical difficulty are now low enough to be within reach of a dog breeder. Still, this has been the single hardest thing I’ve ever done. The amount of hours put into building a genetics lab, learning the skills, and actually modifying the genes of living organisms has been staggering.
The thing I have learned more than anything is these techniques and tools can be put together in a way that’s even more inexpensive and accessible. I’ve spend this whole time working to simplify these techniques and to find methods and materials that further reduce the price and complexity. Now I have it down to a much simpler and much cheaper method, if I’d known what I know now at the beginning I could have saved myself years of work. This is now something that any dog breeder who can perform an AI can do.
The first of these genetically engineered dogs should be born mid to late 2018. There are a lot more in-depth explanations coming soon to explain these methods and to explain some of the incredible possibilities technologies like CRISPR bring to the table for dog breeders. This first litter I will add a jelly fish gene that causes the dogs to fluoresce under black light. This is just a marker gene to demonstrate the power of the technique. It’s already been done in many species before, this will be the first time it’s been done by a dog breeder though. This cat and these mice show what the pups will look like.
The basic idea to understand is that there is a method to alter the DNA of sperm after it’s been collected and before artificial insemination. This method can be used for less than $1000 worth of equipment and reagents to add genes from other species or to precisely edit the existing genes.
I’ve already made these genetic edits in bacteria, yeast and now dog sperm all confirmed by fluorescent microscopy.
Genetically modified Bacteria
Genetically modified Yeast
Genetically modified Dog Sperm
The next step is to actually inseminate with the modified sperm and produce modified puppies.
Here are some videos that go into more explanation.
A bit more detail
Some media that goes into some of the regulatory issues we’re coming up against.
https://gizmodo.com/the-fda-is-cracking-down-on-rogue-genetic-engineers-1791760888
Other media coverage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDn1usbJ32Q
https://medium.com/neodotlife/david-ishee-crispr-dogs-dalmatians-d24a48d5d874
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23331173-400-backyard-gene-editing-risks-creating-a-monster/
https://www.horizons-mag.ch/2018/03/08/is-it-a-human-right-to-biohack-yourself/
This is the link to my YouTube channel where I document and share the development of this project and teach the method.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCftNyK6c9JdIFTQ2TLQqm_g
This is the Netflix documentary series that I am in that covers some of my work.
https://www.netflix.com/title/80208910
This is my patreon if you want early access to the results of my work an if you want to support the effort to make this technology more accessible to breeders.
Midgard Mastiffs 