{"id":982505,"date":"2026-08-05T14:52:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T14:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/982505\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T14:52:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T14:52:17","slug":"scientists-use-gene-editing-to-create-hypoallergenic-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/982505\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists use gene editing to create hypoallergenic dogs"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Matt Walker couldn\u2019t pet a dog without sneezing \u2014 until he and other scientists used a gene editing technique<\/a> to produce a hypoallergenic beagle named Bailey.<\/p>\n

Now, he can feed Bailey spoons of peanut butter<\/a> while she lies on his lap and play fetch with her in Central Park. His allergies didn\u2019t go away: Bailey\u2019s saliva and hair no longer contain a key allergy-causing protein.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe feeling right now is sort of a mix of relief and awe and gratitude that it worked,\u201d said Walker, a geneticist. His company, Kindred Companion Sciences, created Bailey and her twin Alfie using a Nobel Prize-winning technique<\/a> called CRISPR.<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll take years before the millions who suffer from dog-related allergies can walk into a pet store and buy a pooch like Alfie or Bailey. <\/p>\n

Scientists have to monitor the long-term health effects of the genetic tweak, and find ways to commercialize the approach to make it affordable. And experts not involved with the effort say it could hurt shelter and rescue animals waiting to be adopted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt opens the door to a lot more people being able to own pets. On the negative side, it may discourage people from trying to use strays and unwanted animals that are not engineered to be allergy-free,\u201d said bioethicist Arthur Caplan with New York University\u2019s Grossman School of Medicine.<\/p>\n

Researchers have tried to create hypoallergenic pets before, mostly using cloning. But this led to sicker pups that were too genetically similar. Two years ago, researchers used CRISPR to reduce levels of an allergy-causing protein in a cat named Alsik. But it\u2019s not yet clear whether this technique is safe to be tested on other cats.<\/p>\n

Dogs that shed less, like poodles, are often thought of as hypoallergenic. But these pups still produce allergy-causing proteins that end up in their saliva, hair and dander, so they can still make people sniffly.<\/p>\n

To create Alfie and Bailey, scientists started in the lab. They edited the genetic code inside dog skin cells, switching off the main gene responsible for producing allergy-causing proteins. Then they transferred the edited genetic code into eggs that went into a beagle surrogate that gave birth to two healthy female pups in September 2024. Scientists tested their saliva and fur and didn\u2019t find signs of the allergy-causing protein. <\/p>\n

They also performed an allergy test, pricking Walker\u2019s skin with extracts from Alfie and Bailey\u2019s saliva and dander. His skin reacted to samples from a poodle and goldendoodle, but not from the beagles.<\/p>\n

The research, published Wednesday in the CRISPR Journal, is the first time such an approach has been tried successfully in dogs. <\/p>\n

Walker says all dogs have the same allergy-causing gene that was edited in Alfie and Bailey. Kindred Companion Sciences hopes to test the technique on other dogs and service animals to see if they can breed an allergy-free line of pups beyond beagles. <\/p>\n

Future research should test the gene-edited hypoallergenic dogs on more people with pet allergies to be sure they can soothe symptoms across a broader swath of the human population, said Dr. Jeff SoRelle, a pathologist at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.<\/p>\n

Since the switched-off gene is the main \u2014 but not the only \u2014 allergy-causing culprit in dogs that was tested, \u201cwe don\u2019t exactly know just how effective or broadly useful this could be for stopping dog allergy in humans,\u201d said SoRelle, who had no role in the study.<\/p>\n

Bailey lives with Walker in New York, and Alfie lives in Florida with another Kindred scientist. The edit made to their genes is rare but does occur naturally in some dogs, so Walker said it\u2019s unlikely to have any negative effects on the pups. But it will still be important to monitor them at routine vet visits and make sure they stay healthy.<\/p>\n

Walker has had Bailey for a little over a year and says she\u2019s become a member of the family. <\/p>\n

Despite being a lifelong dog lover, his allergies kept him away from pups growing up. Even breeds that were supposed to be more hypoallergenic, like his family\u2019s goldendoodle, gave him itchy eyes and painful rashes.<\/p>\n

But he and Bailey can play tug-of-war together in his living room, and she snuggles at his feet to comfort him when he\u2019s sick. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels just amazing to get to have a dog,\u201d Walker said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute\u2019s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Matt Walker couldn\u2019t pet a dog without sneezing \u2014 until he and other scientists…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":982506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8],"tags":[24320,3425,4654,6064,723,57,210,1165,394363,405,403,7926,159,61,67,132,68,17860],"class_list":["post-982505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-allergies","tag-animals","tag-dogs","tag-fl-state-wire","tag-florida","tag-general-news","tag-health","tag-lifestyle","tag-matt-walker","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-pets","tag-science","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-zoology"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117043471725660795","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=982505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/982506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=982505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=982505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=982505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}