Biotech Cats

[Miso Vegan]

They're heeee-ere! You can buy them now, but you can't bring them home 'til 2007, y'all, so no need to rush to get a litter box set up... [Man, this so reminds me of the movie Cats and Dogs.]


EXCLUSIVE NOTIFICATION

Prior to issuing a worldwide announcement next month, ALLERCA is thrilled to report that the world’s first scientifically proven hypoallergenic cats have finally arrived!

Click HERE to see a photo of actual ALLERCA hypoallergenic cats (large image!)

The ALLERCA hypoallergenic cat will allow consumers to enjoy the love and companionship of a pet without the cost, inconvenience, risk, and limited effectiveness of current allergy treatments. Initial limited delivery of the first hypoallergenic kittens will begin in 2007, with increased availability through 2008.

ALLERCA’s hypoallergenic cats are a significant new alternative to the traditional treatment of cat allergies given that they eliminate the allergen at its source. By using proprietary genetic technology (patents pending), ALLERCA focused on naturally-occurring genetic divergences (GD) in cats, specifically targeting the gene responsible for the production of the common cat allergen. Using interpretive biodiagnostics, ALLERCA detected minute variations in the feline genome, and coerced specific genes towards the intended end-point, i.e. the world's first scientifically proven, genetically divergent (GD) hypoallergenic cats.

In recent exposure trials, volunteers with known feline allergies were fully exposed to the ALLERCA GD cats, without demonstrating any allergic reactions. When these same individuals were subsequently exposed to regular non-GD cats, they had immediate allergic reactions consisting of swollen eyes, difficulty in breathing and hives.

The ALLERCA GD kittens are priced at US$3950.00 (for US customers: international customers, please check our website for international pricing). ALLERCA has implemented a web-based information and purchasing system for those who want to be some of the first to own and enjoy an ALLERCA GD hypoallergenic kitten.

The overall response we received when this project was first announced was tremendous - and we anticipate a much greater response now that the cats are actually here. If you are considering the purchase of an ALLERCA GD kitten, we would strongly advise you proceed within the next few days. ALLERCA GD kitten delivery is very limited through 2007 and we anticipate that demand will push availability to 2009 or later.

Please visit our website at www.allerca.com or email us if you have any questions or comments.
ALLERCA Development Team - info@allerca.com
Tel: 619.793.5100
Fax: 310.861.5606
Email: info@allerca.com
Web: http://www.allerca.com

[iamtheqbu]

*speechless but rolls eyes*

[dropscone]

If this wasn't May I'd wonder if it was an April Fool's joke - I find it unbelievable.

[bird]

Cat Lovers Lining Up for No-Sneeze Kitties

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

A small California biotech company says it is ready to deliver the Holy Grail of the $35 billion pet industry: a hypoallergenic cat.

At the start of next year, the first kittens — which the company calls “lifestyle pets” — will go home to eager owners who have been carefully screened and have been on a waiting list for more than two years.

Since it announced the project in October 2004, the company, Allerca, of San Diego, says it has received inquiries from people in 85 countries seeking to buy a cat bred so that its glands do not produce the protein responsible for most human cat allergies.

Cats ordered now will take 12 to 15 months for delivery in the United States, 15 to 18 months in Europe. Cost: $4,000. And owners must pass Allerca’s finicky screening tests.

Prospective buyers are interviewed for motivation and warmth, approved as if they were adopting a child. Will they punish if kitty has an accident on the floor or scratches the furniture? Their families and their homes — from carpets to curtains — must also be evaluated for allergies and allergens.

“You’re not just buying a cat; it’s a medical device that replaces shots and pills,” said Megan Young, chief executive of Allerca. “At the same time, this is a living animal, so the well-being of our product comes before our customers. This is not some high-priced handbag that you put back on the shelf if it doesn’t match.”

In the United States and Europe, cats are the most common household pet — there are an estimated 30 million in this country alone — and cat allergies are one of most common human allergies. That combination has made many homes cauldrons of sneezing, itchy conflicts in which a fiancé is allergic to his beloved’s favorite pet, or a mother-in-law cannot come for a festive meal because of Fluffy’s presence.

With cat owners sometimes paying thousands of dollars each year for allergy shots, antihistamines and air filters to damp down allergies, $4,000 for a sneeze-free existence may be an acceptable price tag. More research is needed, but preliminary independent studies suggest Allerca cats do not provoke allergies.

“As strange as it may sound, for us the price would have been worth it — it would have saved us money, and saved us pain from all the medical and also emotional problems,” said Christopher Cullen of New York. His girlfriend’s worsening allergies resulted this week in their putting up for adoption their beloved cat, Cimbi, who had achieved “mild Internet notoriety,” Mr. Cullen said, as the star of her own Web site, harlemfur.com.

Mr. Cullen and his girlfriend, Cheryl Burley, have fought a losing two-year battle to engineer a tolerable co-existence with Cimbi, because Ms. Burley, a devoted cat lover, has had cat allergies since childhood. On the Web site, you can watch Mr. Cullen, who works for the New York Senate Democratic Conference, giving Cimbi a bath to reduce her allergen load; he takes Cimbi on a leash to Morningside Park for a day, to give his girlfriend’s allergies a break.

The couple never put down carpets. They installed HEPA filters and vacuumed incessantly. But Ms. Burley’s symptoms worsened in recent months and that fragile equilibrium fell apart two weeks ago when the couple took in a second cat, Marley. Ms. Burley could not work, could not breathe and had a seizure. They took Marley to an animal shelter.

“Our whole life has gone downhill,” Ms. Burley said. “I missed four days of work. I’m back on inhalers, eyedrops and creams. This hypoallergenic cat would be a perfect solution for me. I’m determined to have a kitty.”

Dr. Sheldon Spector, a professor of clinical medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, recently studied the cats and said the concept seemed to work.

Ten volunteers with severe cat allergies were exposed to a variety of cats but showed no reaction to the Allerca cats, though all had symptoms with normal animals. “This is not a definitive study, but it is an interesting and intriguing concept that could really help people,” Dr. Spector said.

For the moment, he said he would not recommend buying the cats because “$4,000 seems like a lot of money” and there was still the chance that some people might react to some degree to less common cat proteins.

Most human cat allergies are caused by Fel d 1, a molecule that has been sequenced and its gene mapped in the last decade. At first, Allerca scientists sought a method to delete or disable the gene.

But in testing to see whether the gene had been effectively silenced, they made a fortuitous discovery: A very small number of cats carry a mutant gene that produces a modified protein, far less likely to induce allergies.

At that point, the research shifted course. Allerca screened thousands of cats to identify a population with the modified gene and then set those cats to breeding. Because the mutant gene is dominant, the breeding cats could be mated with normal cats to produce hypoallergenic kittens. And no special licensing or government approvals were necessary.

So, for the past few months, Allerca’s small pool of hypoallergenic cats have been busy reproducing. Their breeding facility cannot be visited and “is at a secret undisclosed location,” said Ms. Young, Allerca’s chief executive.

At 10 to 12 weeks, every Allerca kitten is neutered before it is delivered. The company insists this is mainly to prevent feline overpopulation. But every Allerca cat carries the dominant hypoallergenic gene and, in theory, could produce copycat hypoallergenic kittens.

In tests, Allerca cats do not produce allergic reactions. But only a few of the cats have lived in private homes, and only for a few weeks.

Last month, an Allerca public relations consultant, Julie Chytrowsky, kept Joshua, an Allerca cat, for several weeks at her Los Angeles area apartment. Joshua had flown to California to “do some publicity.”

Ms. Chytrowsky, who says she is normally quite allergic, had no symptoms even though she allowed Joshua to sleep in her bed. “I fell in love with him,” she said. “He is a real stud — well, he is a stud, really.”

The company insists on an assiduous screening of all prospective owners and their families because the cats may still not be safe for people with the most severe forms of cat allergy, such as people who have been rushed to the hospital after anaphylactic reactions. They might react to even the modified protein.

A Food and Drug Administration allergy test kit arrives five weeks before each kitten and all family members must be tested. Another required test detects the presence of other allergens in the house through a collection system that clients must place on their vacuum.

“We don’t want you blaming our cats if the real issue is mold or ragweed,” Ms. Young said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/06/sc....html?ei=5087%

[Miso Vegan]

Umm, I'm glad they care about their cats, but,

Originally Posted by spokesperson from Allerca

this is a living animal, so the well-being of our product...

Well-being of our product?

Well-being of our product?

[gur]

also:

At 10 to 12 weeks, every Allerca kitten is neutered before it is delivered. The company insists this is mainly to prevent feline overpopulation.

too late, morons.

this whole thing makes me so mad that i don't even know where to begin.

STUPID BREEDERS!!!

[ViolinCyndee]

Originally Posted by misanthropy

They have... Cornish & Devon Rexes and Sphynx cats.

Yes, though Devons and Cornish Rex can still cause allergies, though less than cats with the top coat of fur. I have a Devon Rex--he is such a mush!

[bluedawg]

sheesh.

Cloned cats that glow?!

Posted: Thursday, December 13, 2007 2:35 PM by Alan Boyle

South Korean scientists say they have cloned cats whose genes have been altered so that they glow in the dark - taking advantage of a technological twist that could someday be used to make more dramatic genetic changes in all sorts of creatures.

A research team at Gyeongsang National University, headed by Kong Il-Keun, produced several kitty clones in January and February, the government-managed Korea.net news service reported Wednesday. This week the scientists showed off the cats, which now weigh about 7 pounds (3 to 3.5 kilograms) and glow a dull red under ultraviolet light.

"The ability to manipulate the fluorescent protein and use this to clone cats opens new horizons for artificially creating animals with human illnesses linked to genetic causes," the Ministry of Science and Technology said in Wednesday's report.

The procedure for cloning a cat has been around for six years, and Kong himself first performed that particular feat back in 2004. What's noteworthy about the newly reported twist - other than that glow-in-the-dark kitties are really cool - is that scientists fiddled with the donor cat's genetic code, then passed those changes on to the clones.

Here's what the researchers say they did: They took skin cells from Turkish Angora female cats and used a virus to insert the genetic instructions for making red fluorescent protein. Then they put the gene-altered nuclei into eggs for cloning. The cloned embryos were implanted back into the donor cats, which effectively became the surrogate mothers for their own clones.

Four kittens were born by Caesarian section, but one of them died during the procedure, according to the Korea Times. The fact that the kittens' skin cells glowed under ultraviolet light served as evidence that they were really gene-altered clones.

Assuming that the results are confirmed, Kong's cats would join mice and pigs in the glow-in-the-dark clone menagerie. The implication is that if you can pass along the easy-to-recognize coding for fluorescent markers through cloning, you could eventually pass along more complex genetic coding.

Theoretically, you could add in the coding for an endangered species, producing cloned hybrids to boost the gene pool for Sumatran tigers, Iberian lynxes and the like. You might even stick in the coding to give other creatures human diseases, so that they can be studied without raising the level of ethical concern that comes with human experimentation. (I realize that there's a different set of ethical concerns about such trangenic experiments, however.)

Most provocatively, animal clones might be genetically altered to produce human body parts. Does that sound like a way-out science-fiction plot? Well, it's already happening, and sparking an unsettling debate.

This week's report doesn't mean that glow-in-the-dark pets will be waiting under the Christmas tree anytime soon. There are a few caveats surrounding these cats:

* This research came to light through press releases rather than peer-reviewed articles, and many of the details still have to be published and replicated. It doesn't help that South Korea was ground zero for the biggest scientific scandal in cloning just a couple of years ago. You'll want to wait for confirmation before you put too much stock in Kong's glowing reports.

* Even if the results are confirmed, they represent just one more small step in the long march of genetic progress. Those cool fluorescent proteins merely serve as a guide for more substantive genetic modifications.

* Even if glow-in-the-dark cats become routine in the laboratory, that doesn't mean they'll hit it off as housepets. Glow-in-the-dark fish have been offered commercially for several years - but they're still illegal in California and many countries, due to concerns about genetically modified organisms. What's more, it costs tens of thousands of dollars to produce just one run-of-the-mill, non-glowing cat clone - a price tag so hefty that it's not commercially viable.

To my mind, the best place to look for a cute little ball of glowing fur is your local pet adoption center - plus an outlet that sells glow-in-the-dark cat collars.

caption: Photos from South Korea's Ministry of Science and Technology show cloned cats that have a gene for producing red fluorescence protein. The cats appear normal in visible light, at left, but their skin glows red under ultraviolet light, at right.

[Dugan]

If only they would glow in the dark, without special lighting, it would resolve the problem of stepping on them in the middle of the night.

[JasperKat]

I wonder if white cats glow under blacklight? Any of you hippies know?

-JK