, was chief scientific officer at Kindred and the former head of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Veterinary Medicine.Church is certainly the best-known of the trio. He was one of the initiators in 1990 of the Human Genome Project that identified, mapped and sequenced all of the genes in the human genome — the full load of genetic material in the human body.
With AdoraPet, which was formed in August, the founders are targeting something smaller and more huggable, perhaps more sellable to consumers and more sustainable as a business: pets. That market is the big bone in the multibillion-dollar pet industry for AdoraPet. By using the CRISPR genome-editing technology — developed by University of California, Berkeley, Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna and others — the company hopes to eliminate shedding and ultimately make pets resistant to cancer and other serious diseases and stop common conditions caused by inbreeding, such as hip dysplasia and cataracts.
Ascendant Venture, a San Mateo-based family office and venture studio led by Chin, bought 5.25 million shares of the startup in August. Ascendant also has invested in Vetmab Biosciences, a San Diego animal drug developer cofounded by Chin and led by Kindred Bio co-founder, president and COOAdoraPet could be dogged by a number of potential risks, including criticism from people opposed to genetic engineering as well as from animal rights activists.