"How much does it cost to clone your pet?"
"What is it like to clone a deceased pet and bring it back to life?"
"The dead cat was cloned and brought back to life."
"The old lady from Haishi spent 180,000 yuan to clone a pet. Her grandson said that her grandma's pet dog would pass away soon due to old age and illness. In order to let her dog accompany her in another form, he and her grandma finally decided to spend 180,000 yuan after consultation. 180,000 yuan for pet cloning services.”
When Li Chengmin saw the news about pet cloning on the Internet, he was immediately struck.
His wish has always been that his pet can always be by his side.
His parents have been busy with work since he was a child and have little time to take care of him. As an only child, he has been very lonely since he was a child.
This situation intensified when he was in middle school, due to the pressure to enter higher education, and he even tended to be autistic and depressed.
However, a long-haired cat broke into the house and changed everything.
Accompanied by this docile, lovely, and extremely humane kitten, his loneliness was no longer so strong, and he became much more lively and cheerful.
After working, he rented a small apartment by himself and took the cat with him.
After more than ten years of companionship, this long-haired tabby cat named Nuts has become a real family member to him.
However, the life span of pets is not long compared to humans, and they often cannot accompany their owners until the end.
Seeing that Nu Nuo is getting older day by day, with more and more gray hair, and is too lazy to walk every day. He will no longer be by his side all the time, but will lie lazily on the sofa and sleep all day long.
He knew that the day when Nut left was getting closer. Maybe next year, it would let go and return to the cat star.
This was undoubtedly an outcome he couldn't bear. Every time he thought about it, his heart ached, as if he had lost a close relative.
He also considered adopting another cat, but long-haired cats with civet colors like Nuts are rare, and he insisted on wanting a long-haired cat with colors similar to Nuts, but this request has not been met for a long time. .
Now, when he saw the news about pet cloning, he instantly found a new direction.
Pet cloning may seem a little far away from most people's lives, but mentioning the world's first cloned sheep "Dolly", a case written in biology textbooks, will definitely evoke people's memories.
Ten years after Dolly was born, a scientific research team in Bangzi Country cloned the first hunting dog. By around 2007, cloned dogs had begun to be commercialized in Bangzi Country.
Around 2017, many domestic companies began to provide commercial pet cloning services. Cat and dog cloning became two of the more common types of commercially cloned pets, with prices ranging from 100,000 to more than 400,000.
The price of cloning pets is so high, but it cannot stop pet lovers who are willing to pay. The commercialized pet cloning track continues to attract an influx of companies.
But for Li Chengmin, the price is too expensive.
He has only worked for two years, his salary is not high, daily living expenses in Haishi are very expensive, he does not have much savings, and it is impossible to get support from his parents for this kind of thing. The sky-high cost of cloning of nearly 200,000 yuan is really far away. beyond his capabilities.
After some inquiries, he gave up the idea of commercial cloning with a sigh on his face.
At this moment, he came across biohacking on the Internet, and his eyes suddenly brightened.
Since he couldn't afford to find a pet cloning agency, he would do it himself.
Isn’t this the popular spirit of bio-DIY technology?
Many technical materials are readily available online, and he is not afraid of learning.
To do experiments, you can watch videos and ask experts for advice. Even if you ask professionals for guidance, it doesn't cost much.
The shared laboratory with reagents, equipment, venues, and dragon diagrams is about to open for trial operation.
Everything is ready, all it takes is hard work.
So, he resolutely joined the 'Infinite Genes' biohacking group, asked Zhang Han and others for advice, and used all his strength to start learning biology and cloning technology from scratch.
The pet cloning process consists of four steps: extracting cell samples, extracting cell lines to establish cloned embryos, and implanting into a surrogate mother to develop into a new individual.
Specifically, cloning a pet cat requires first extracting a cell sample from the pet, usually a small piece of skin, and using the cell sample to establish a somatic cell line. At the same time, a batch of female cats in suitable estrus state are selected to collect spare oocytes.
Subsequently, the nucleus of the mature cat oocyte is removed, and the cat somatic cells are transplanted into the cat oocyte to construct a cloned embryo.
The cloned embryos are then transplanted into the surrogate female cat. After the surrogate female cat becomes pregnant, the pet cat can be cloned.
The cloning process for dogs is basically similar to that for cats.
After learning, Li Chengmin began to practice. At the same time, he also took videos of all the processes and recorded them for verification.
Extracting cells is the first step in pet cloning.
He personally extracted the skin epidermal tissue of the old cat at home and successfully preserved the gene.
Everything went smoothly, but this simple step cost at least 20,000 yuan at a pet cloning agency.
After the cells are extracted, the samples are used to establish somatic cell lines in the laboratory.
This step was quite difficult. He consulted many biohackers and even found an old classmate who studied biology for advice.
At the same time, he also contacted a caring aunt nearby who adopted stray cats to finance sterilization and cat food in exchange for the qualification to collect oocytes from stray female cats in heat.
Of course, considering that pet cloning may cause harm to the surrogate mother, out of compensation, he planned to adopt the surrogate mother cat together after the cloning was successful.
Moreover, he only plans to use one surrogate mother for each embryo transfer, trying to minimize the harm to the stray female cats.
Pet cloning currently has no legal risks, but it does face ethical pressures.
Because the technology of cloning pets such as cats and dogs has been overcome, the efficiency of cloning is also related to the quality and proficiency of technicians. If the technology is not mature or proficient enough, a lot of experiments will be needed in the early stage, which will waste a lot of manpower and material costs.
This naturally includes the input of experimental animals.
To successfully clone a cat, workers need to prepare dozens of cloned embryos and implant them into several surrogate female cats. Only then can a cat be successfully cloned.
This huge waste of experimental animals has also attracted strong resistance from animal protection activists.
They believe that the commercialization of pet cloning is entirely to satisfy people's selfish desires.
Consumers want an identical pet, but countless experimental animals are sacrificed behind the scenes.
Not only are these experimental animals given hormones, but they also have to undergo surgeries again and again, and they also have to endure endless cage life.
All of this is unacceptable to animal rights activists.
Li Chengmin is not skilled enough. He can only find other ways to practice as much as possible, such as practicing more on mice and learning the most advanced iPS induced pluripotent stem cell technology to increase the success rate.
As a senior cat slave who loves cats and dogs, he cannot completely sacrifice many experimental animals for his own selfish desires. He can only work hard to hone his skills and minimize harm to cats.
Fortunately, he works alone and has much more freedom than company staff, so he can make compromises in this regard.
In this way, it also aroused confusion and doubts from the caring aunt next door.
"Young man, if you want to raise a cat, you can just adopt one. Why go to such trouble? There are so many stray cats now that we can't even adopt them. Why are you going to do cloning?"
"Is it worth spending so much effort?"
While accepting the cat food he sent with a smile on her face, the aunt shook her head and tortured her soul.
Li Chengmin was speechless. It was difficult for him to explain all this to his aunt, so he had to smile bitterly.
"Auntie, just think of this as an obsession."
"If I don't do it, I will be sad. If I do it, it will make me happy, and it will be worth it."
The aunt muttered and walked away, as if she couldn't understand. She also felt that his mind was a little abnormal.
About two months later, the cell line was successfully established, and Li Chengmin started cloning.
After overcoming a series of difficulties, he finally constructed three cloned embryos and transplanted them into a surrogate female cat.
The next step is to see if the embryo can survive.
Under current technical means, the embryo survival rate is not high, about 10%, and only one out of 10 embryos can survive.
Therefore, some companies that undertake pet cloning in large quantities will raise their own surrogate mothers. Because pets have different estrus times, only if there are enough mothers can they ensure that there are enough eggs every month to meet the order demand.
Not only that, when pet cloning agencies sign contracts with customers, they usually set a delivery time. In order to avoid accidents that affect order delivery, agencies will find multiple mothers for conception at the beginning to increase the success rate, which requires sufficient quantities. experimental animals.
Li Chengmin only has one order for himself, and he does not have multiple surrogate female cats to use.
After all, the caring aunt next door couldn't tolerate him experimenting on many female cats over and over again.
His fault tolerance rate is not high, so he can only try to improve his technical level and improve the embryo survival rate as much as possible.
Unfortunately, luck did not favor him at the beginning, and the first embryo transplant was not successful.
After 20 days, the female cat still did not show her pregnancy.
This was undoubtedly a huge blow to him.
After some examination, he restarted the second transplant experiment.
This time, out of caution, he took the surrogate civet cat home and took care of it himself.
I make cat food every day, have enough canned snacks, and pamper the female cat to make it very comfortable.
Fortunately, this time it finally succeeded.
One month later, the female cat’s belly became obviously bulging.
Li Chengmin was extremely excited. He was like an old father waiting for a newborn, waiting for the arrival of his child.
Another month later, the female cat gave birth to three kittens at home.
Due to different genes, cat clones will have certain appearance differences, and this probability is much greater than that of dogs.
Therefore, although the three kittens born this time are all long-haired tabby cats and very beautiful, their colors are not exactly the same.
Nut has beautiful white gloves, his belly is also white, and his face has more white parts.
The civet cat is already a species with relatively small differences. The clone version inherits the white gloves, but only one has a white belly. The color of the face is also slightly different from the original version in appearance.
But Li Chengmin was already satisfied. He decided to keep all three kittens. After the kittens were weaned, he would send the female cat to be sterilized.
I don’t know if it was a coincidence or something, but Nut walked around the three kittens and sniffed them for a long time before returning to Meow Star the next day.
Li Chengmin suppressed the sadness in his heart, edited all the videos, and posted them on Station B.
“I cloned my own cat – the growth and transformation of a biohacker”
This video was full of gimmicks and instantly attracted a large number of clicks. It exceeded one million views in just one day.
Li Chengmin narrated the causes and consequences in the video and showed the entire cloning process.
At the end of the video, he said affectionately with a hint of melancholy in his eyes.
"Just one week after the successful cloning of the cat, my nut suddenly returned to the cat star. This makes me extremely happy. Fortunately, I started cloning early and kept a brand new one before I left."
"I can't believe how sad and regretful I would have been to face his passing if I hadn't started this sooner."
“Everyone, although cloning technology is difficult, it is not insurmountable. I use my own experience to prove to everyone that as long as you are willing to work hard, you can completely save the 200,000 yuan, and at the same time, you can minimize the harm to the surrogate female cat. "
"Now this surrogate female cat has become part of my family, and together with her three children, she has lived a happy cat life."
"Okay, that's it for the video. If you want to know everything about pet cloning, please follow me. Thank you!"
For the public, paying 200,000 yuan to clone a pet cat is enough to attract attention and arouse public controversy.
What's more, it's such a hard-core thing to clone your own pet cat.
Pet cloning and biohacking, these two hot words instantly made the audience's adrenaline surge.
After watching the video, netizens all exclaimed.
"Oh my god, is this the most hardcore Up owner in the history of Bilibili?"
"Oh my god, can I watch this without paying? I would be embarrassed if I didn't give you one-click and three-link."
"The senior cat slave turns out to be like this. I am so ashamed that I will never dare to say that I am a cat slave again."
"Master UP, how much did you spend to clone such a set? Can you tell me how much it cost?"
"I feel like the cost is not very high. It can probably be done within 50,000 yuan. The difficulty lies in the effort you put in."
"Master UP, do you accept business orders? I also want to clone my family dog. I sent you a private message. Remember to reply."
"It's biohacking again. This thing is so popular recently. I want to join them."
"The concept of biohacking is indeed good. It has been popular abroad before, but now it has become popular in China."
"If cat owners can clone their own cats like UP owners, how will my country's biotechnology develop?"
"This UP owner can clone cats now, but I can't even think of what he can clone in the future."
"Professionals say that in fact, there are no technical barriers to pet cloning now, and commercialization is also very mature. There are many companies doing this business on the market, but the C-side is not very profitable. There are only more than 100 cases a year, and they are all It was introduced by an acquaintance. The main business is still focused on the B-side, providing services such as cloning silverback gorillas to zoos. Several companies have completed angel round financing."
"Nowadays, more and more people are raising cats and dogs, and the pet consumer market is also very large, with more than 200 billion. It seems that there will be a market for pet cloning in the future."
"Actually, pet clones cannot be exactly the same as the original ones. They can only be regarded as identical twins. Moreover, cloned pets are prone to diseases and their lifespan is not long. If you really like raising cats, you can raise a new one. There is no difference at all."
"Every pet is unique. Even if it is cloned, its memory and life traces are difficult to find in the clone. It is equivalent to buying a new pet with the same appearance. The significance of cloning is not as great as everyone thinks. big."
"Everyone should proceed with caution. Of course it doesn't matter if the UP owner clones himself, but we don't have the technology and it will cost a lot of money. We still need to carefully consider whether it is worth it."
Although pet cloning has caused some controversy, all viewers expressed their respect for Li Chengmin's hard-core skills by retweeting it like crazy.
In three days, the number of views on the video exceeded 10 million, and it continues to grow.
This video also went viral and became a hot search topic all over the Internet. Even people from TV stations came to interview him.
The WeChat marketing account quickly produced a number of short articles, which gained crazy popularity.
The word biohacking instantly became a hot word on the entire Internet, just like Internet hackers, it is as popular as it is popular among people.
Soon, people discovered what disease-resistant pigs and cloned cats had in common.
Gao Jun and Li Chengmin both belong to the same biohacking group.
The 'Infinite Genes' biohacking group became completely popular.
It has even become popular overseas - the home base of biohackers.
(End of chapter)
