Eduardo Kac's GFP Bunny, Genpets

[From ekac.org] 'Alba, the green fluorescent bunny, is an albino rabbit. She only glows when illuminated with blue light. She was created with EGFP, an enhanced version of the original wild-type green fluorescent gene found in the jellyfish Aequorea Victoria. EGFP gives about two orders of magnitude greater fluorescence in mammalian cells (including human cells) than the original jellyfish gene.'


[From www.genpets.com] 'Genpets are pre-packaged, bioengineered pets... They are living, breathing genetic animals. We use a process called "Zygote Micro Injection" which is quickly becoming a favourable method to combine DNA, or to insert certain proteins from different species. Most notably it was used in 1997 to splice mice with bioluminescent jellyfish (link) and has since been used to create glowing rabbits, pigs, fish, and monkeys (link). Since then, human DNA has been injected into rabbits, chimpanzees, spider DNA into sheep, and now, Genpets...'



Adam Brandejs, creator of Genpets, also made this animatronic flesh shoe. [From Adam's website] 'The shoe is stitched together with multiple pieces of latex rubber cast out of molds made from my own skin. The shoe's toe and heel raise and lower as it occasionally vibrates/pulsates, and twitches on the floor as if it were still alive.'