Missyplicity goes commercial

The Missyplicity Project is alive and well, even though Missy herself passed away in July, and funding for the effort to clone her has moved to the Sausilito, California-based company Genetic Savings & Clone (GSC). The millionaire founder of the University of Phoenix, John Sperling, announced earlier this month that he was terminating a $3.7 million partnership with Texas A&M's College of Veterinary Medicine, aimed at cloning Sperling's beloved Siberian husky mix, Missy.Though the Texas

Written byLeslie Pray
| 2 min read

Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
2:00
Share

The Missyplicity Project is alive and well, even though Missy herself passed away in July, and funding for the effort to clone her has moved to the Sausilito, California-based company Genetic Savings & Clone (GSC). The millionaire founder of the University of Phoenix, John Sperling, announced earlier this month that he was terminating a $3.7 million partnership with Texas A&M's College of Veterinary Medicine, aimed at cloning Sperling's beloved Siberian husky mix, Missy.

Though the Texas A&M team produced the world's first cloned cat last year, and had achieved two dog pregnancies in the five years since the Missyplicity Project was announced, they had been unable to bring a dog clone to term.

Mark Westhusin told The Scientist his Texas A&M group will no longer pursue dog or cat cloning. "We are continuing our work with cloning. Most now is focused on basic science to understand why so many cloned ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

The Scientist Logo
Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!
Already a member? Login Here

Meet the Author

Share
Image of a woman with her hands across her stomach. She has a look of discomfort on her face. There is a blown up image of her stomach next to her and it has colorful butterflies and gut bacteria all swarming within the gut.
November 2025, Issue 1

Why Do We Feel Butterflies in the Stomach?

These fluttering sensations are the brain’s reaction to certain emotions, which can be amplified or soothed by the gut’s own “bugs".

View this Issue
Olga Anczukow and Ryan Englander discuss how transcriptome splicing affects immune system function in lung cancer.

Long-Read RNA Sequencing Reveals a Regulatory Role for Splicing in Immunotherapy Responses

Pacific Biosciences logo
Research Roundtable: The Evolving World of Spatial Biology

Research Roundtable: The Evolving World of Spatial Biology

Conceptual cartoon image of gene editing technology

Exploring the State of the Art in Gene Editing Techniques

Bio-Rad
Conceptual image of a doctor holding a brain puzzle, representing Alzheimer's disease diagnosis.

Simplifying Early Alzheimer’s Disease Diagnosis with Blood Testing

fujirebio logo

Products

Labvantage Logo

LabVantage Solutions Awarded $22.3 Million U.S Customs and Border Protection Contract to Deliver Next-Generation Forensic LIMS

The Scientist Placeholder Image

Evosep Unveils Open Innovation Initiative to Expand Standardization in Proteomics

OGT logo

OGT expands MRD detection capabilities with new SureSeq Myeloid MRD Plus NGS Panel