Future canines: Gene-edited hypoallergenic dogs offer hope for allergic pet lovers

Matt Walker couldn’t pet a dog without sneezing — until he and fellow scientists used a gene-editing technique to produce a hypoallergenic beagle named Bailey.

Now, he can feed Bailey spoons of peanut butter on his lap and play fetch with her in Central Park. His allergies didn’t disappear; rather, Bailey’s saliva and hair no longer contain a key allergy-triggering protein.

“The feeling right now is a mix of relief, awe, and gratitude that it worked,” said Walker, a geneticist whose company, Kindred Companion Sciences, created Bailey and her twin Alfie using CRISPR, the Nobel Prize-winning gene-editing tool.

It will take years before the millions suffering from dog allergies can buy a pooch like Alfie or Bailey. Scientists must monitor the long-term health effects of the genetic tweak and find ways to commercialise the approach to make it affordable. Experts not involved with the project also warn it could affect shelter and rescue animals awaiting adoption.

“It opens the door to many more people owning pets. On the negative side, it may discourage people from adopting strays and unwanted animals that are not engineered to be allergy-free,” said bioethicist Arthur Caplan of New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine.

Researchers have attempted to create hypoallergenic pets before, mostly through cloning. However, that led to sicker pups with limited genetic diversity. Two years ago, researchers used CRISPR to reduce levels of an allergy-causing protein in a cat named Alsik, though its safety across other cats remains unproven.

Dogs that shed less, such as poodles, are often considered hypoallergenic. Yet, these breeds still produce allergy-causing proteins in their saliva, hair, and dander that trigger symptoms in sensitive people.

To create Alfie and Bailey, scientists began in the lab by editing the genetic code inside dog skin cells to switch off the primary gene responsible for producing the offending protein. They then transferred the edited code into eggs implanted in a beagle surrogate, which gave birth to two healthy female pups in September 2024. Tests on their saliva and fur revealed no trace of the allergy-causing protein.

Scientists also performed a skin-prick test on Walker using extracts from Alfie and Bailey’s saliva and dander. His skin reacted to samples from a poodle and a goldendoodle, but showed no reaction to the edited beagles.

The research, published Wednesday in The CRISPR Journal, marks the first time this approach has succeeded in dogs.

Walker noted that all dogs possess the same allergy-causing gene edited in Alfie and Bailey. Kindred Companion Sciences hopes to test the technique on other breeds and service animals to determine whether they can establish an allergy-free canine line beyond beagles.

Future research must test these gene-edited dogs on a broader group of allergic individuals to confirm whether the approach reliably prevents symptoms across the population, said Dr Jeff SoRelle, a pathologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre.