Bioscience start-up ‘Warhound ‘aims to use its technology to genetically engineer dogs with ‘characteristics suited to demanding missions’. It believes dogs can be genetically altered ‘for things like speed and agility or enhance olfactory sensors for bomb sniffing”. The company will edit the dogs’ genes, adding ones that will improve performance and removing ones that will not, to create ‘a new type of dog.’ Meanwhile, partner company ‘Anduril ‘will provide software and hardware, such as protection vests and goggles, to assist the dogs and their handlers with situational awareness and coordination.
TECH-CRUNCH: Bioscience company Warhound, is backed by $200 million in funding from investors including Sequoia, 8VC, Corner Ventures, and In-Q-Tel, a venture firm backed by the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies to genetically engineer dogs for military purposes. ‘War-hound’ dogs, which do not exist yet, will take on tasks that are dangerous for humans or difficult for machines, such as bomb detection, searches, and other specialized operations.
In its launch announcement, the company said that more than 80% of the U.S. military’s working dogs come from Europe, and less than half of them are fit for service… That means the supply of working dogs is dwindling, and the U.S. increasingly relies on foreign nations for dogs that play an important role in the military and in law enforcement. Warhound aims to change that. The hope is that it can use its technology to engineer dogs with “characteristics suited to demanding missions,” the company said in a press release…
It believes dogs could be enhanced for health, longevity, and “for things like speed and agility or enhance olfactory sensors for bomb sniffing and whatnot,” he said. His team studied top-performing working dog breeds — the Belgian Malinois and German Shepherd — taking cell lines (living cells grown in a lab) from them and putting them in a biobank. From there, the team will edit the dogs’ genes, adding ones that will improve performance and removing ones that will not, to create “a new type of dog.”
The company Anduril, meanwhile, will provide software and hardware, such as protection vests and goggles, to assist the dogs and their handlers with situational awareness and coordination. It said to imagine, for example, bulletproof vests with data sensors that send information back to the handlers so they can better understand what is happening.
“The idea is, if we make the dog safer, make it healthier, make it perform better, it’s going to perform better in the line of duty,” it said… Anduril’s additions will make the dogs safer and healthier beyond their genetics, “on top of the dog, not in the dog.” He believes the enhancements will also better protect the dogs’ human handlers… It said the first batch of dogs is about to be cloned and incubated, with births expected early next year and service ideally beginning within two years. SOURCE
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