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The Spread of Do-It-Yourself Biotech
zrbyte writes "Are you an electronics hobbyist or a garden shed tinkerer? If so, then move aside, because there's a new kid on the block: the DIY biotechnologist. The decreasing price of biotech instrumentation has made it possible for everyday folks (read: biotech geeks) with a few thousand dollars to spare to equip their garages and parents' basements with the necessary 'tools of the trade.' Some, like PCR machines, are available on eBay; other utensils are hacked together from everyday appliances and some creativity. For example: microscopes out of webcams and armpit E. coli incubators. Nature News has an article on the phenomenon, describing the weird and wonderful fruits of biotech geek ingenuity, like glow-in-the-dark yogurt. One could draw parallels with the early days of computer building/programming. It may be that we're looking at a biotech revolution, not just from the likes of Craig Venter, but from Joe-next-door hacking away at his E. coli strain. What are the Steve Wozniaks of biotech working on right now?"
Now I have to worry about the my idiot roommate engineering a virus that'll cause the zombie apocalypse?
Anything here which wasn't covered two years ago??
'nuff said.
It's supposed to be completely automatic, but actually you have to press this button.
Having worked as a research assistant in a mol bio lab, this scares the hell out of me. I don't want people creating the next super bug in their garage. Responsible research labs follow protocols about dealing with the bio-hazardous waste they generate. What happens when your neighbor releases his new organism by accident? And do we really need 'home brew' for this? If you want to study this stuff, go to school for it!
Do really dense people warp space more than others?
- the pot growers who are buying 95% of this equipment
Glow-in-the-dark slippers would be more useful.
Oops, got the wrong bit of DNA.
What do you suppose that red hourglass on the back of this moth means?
Oh, don't let that fly out the window.
Darn, it got away -- I wonder if that's bad?
I'd like to point out that the ambiguous "glow in the dark" quality mentioned here refers to the green fluorescent protein (GFP), a protein which exhibits bright green fluorescence when exposed to blue light. This isn't the good kind of glow in the dark where it produces its own light, it's the inferior "black light makes it glow" variety.
You can't take the sky from me...
Am I the only one who read this headline as "The Spread of Do-It-Yourself, Biotch!"
I could accept Biohackers, but the next step would be Bioscriptkiddies...
I don't see the link to hobbyist computers and electronics. People do not buy a computer to "tinker with" unless they are already quite familiar with using them for real work. (Or games, whatever, but actual tasks). Someone who is familiar with biotech probably has at least a 4 year degree in it. They realize that if they want to do this kind of stuff (tinker aka research), they need millions (billions) of dollars, or they need to be in a university/professional lab. They don't want to spend 1000$ on a no frills PCR machine. That is akin to spending $1000 to build your own cdrom drive instead of buying one. a cdrom drive is about as exciting as a pcr machine (if you don't know, a pcr machine is essentially a programmable heat block). They are talking about seriously low level science here.
I don't GM organisms, but selectively breed fungi.
I believe that it is only a matter of little time until someone releases a harmless virus into the population that contains the first 13 primes or an ASCII message. When this is discovered, the population will correctly be concerned about home-made bioweapons.
Even if the Biocracker isn't smart enough to engineer a new, virulent plague (and they will eventually, hopefully after targeted anti-virals are practically synthesized quickly) they could impair an old deadly virus to only be effective on specific immunodeficiencies in a cell line of an enermy.
The Biotech world of the future will be a world of wonders and horrors.
Don't sell any of your equipment to anyone named O'Neill.
meh.
If you manage to develop a bacterial strain that creates nematodes in your girlfriend you'll get both your revenge and the nobel prize.
Still have to see the "do-it-yourself" biotech as the one shown in Varley's future (as in i.e. Steel Beach), where you could do on yourself complex body modifications as something so simple and easy that children used to do that.
Billions of years of evolution managed to produce us, human beings, along with all other animals, plants, bugs, bacteria, viruses, etc. That same process, that has made an organism so complex as a human being, still hasn't produced a virus that has wiped us out. What makes you think we can do better?
So somebody with zero accountability to anyone can now release a genetically engineered organism into the enviroment? Where it will self-replicate?
I can't see any way THAT could go wrong.
But birds have cones that can see far greater. Some birds can see as low as 375 nm. This lets them see ultraviolet.
How hard would it be to find the gene that lets birds make this kind of cone cell and add it to a human? Breed for UV colorblind birds, compare their DNA with birds that can see UV, sample the DNA and try it out on a monkey first.
P.S. the human lens tends to block light at frequencies of around 380, so we might only be able to see down to 385 nm, but that is still a boost of 35 nm, greater than the difference between green and red.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
A smart evil genius wouldn't create a plague. He or she would be more interested in creating a strain of tomato (or some other benign plant) with THC or cocaine or opium in its leaves. This is the stuff of folklore, well-known as a can-do sort of idea. It isn't farfetched. I don't know why it hasn't happened already.
Not only are garage bioweapons a risk, but there's a ton of knowledge that's readily available to anyone. Some of the sequencers available on the open market are capable of synthesizing polio virus from raw materials. Couple that with research such as this, where researchers accidentally created a 100% deadly organism, and you've got a big problem!
Money quote from the article:
Galileo: "The Earth revolves around the Sun!"
Score: -1 100% Flamebait
hallucinogenic cheese
I've been growing stuff in my refrigerator for years.
Have gnu, will travel.
is the name of my Antoine Dodson cover band.
What makes you think we can do better?
Ignorance. Having no actual detail knowledge of the process of genetic engineering will make you assume that there's a single well known gene encoding for Spore-forming-antibiotic-resistant-universal-substrate-utilizing-bacterioviral-immune-system-bypassing-Death-plague.
And they are right, every idiot will now be able to mix two ingredients together to create a pathogen so vile and soul-wrenchingly evil that the sun will go nova the very second that they open the lid of their petri dish. Really!
What makes you think we can do better?
A mutant virus that kills the host in minutes won't spread far from its originating source, and hence will rapidly die out. An engineered virus that kills its host in minutes can deliberately be spread widely by artificial means.
The virulence will still ensure that it can only be spread by such means, but if it's been spread around your city you might be a bit upset.
Wake me when one of these garage geneticists splices the THC gene into tomatoes or kudzu...
I thought that the worms were the reason for the "ex" part.
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
Doesn't this sound like the start of a spider-man movie?
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
research. So instead of competing with evil Soviet Russians in outerspace exploration, now we compete with geeks in their mothers basements!
International Genetically Engineered Machines competition Look forward to some very affordable kits to be introduced this year.
Somewhat off topic, but why does this story have Blade Runner as a tag? I don't recall the novel or movie being much about biotechnology. Weren't they all androids?
A more appropriate reference would be Windup Girl which is extremely relevant to the subject matter.
Microbes may not be rabid dogs, but they have this uncanny compatibility with each other and the ability to exchange plasmids even across species.
That's what made antibiotic resistance spread so fast across so many different bacteria. They didn't all come up with the same mutation, they got a copy of it from a friendly neighbour bacteria who already had it. (Yeah, bacteria totally don't understand copyright;))
So essentially, best case scenario, from glow-in-the-dark yoghurt you could get glow-in-the-dark shit or glow-in-the-dark teeth. Passing genes to the gut flora was discussed recently even on Slashdot, e.g., how the Japanese acquired genes that help digest seaweed in their gut flora. Know that it can happen to other genes too. Bacteria do that lots.
Worst case scenario, you end up with the clever mutation someone coded in the lab for his mouth bacteria that don't cause caries to have an edge over the natural bad bacteria, being passed on to the less benign MRSA or TBC and giving those a survival edge.
Or it combining with God knows what else -- as proteins or their DNA code aren't exactly orthogonal programming, but rather a mess of spaghetti code where the 5 different side-effects are actually what makes things work -- and maybe has a mutation, _and_ spreads to something else. Maybe add a virus in between accidentally adding it to its own genome, for even more fun.
Add such things as agro-bacteria. Those fun little guys can copy a bit of DNA into a plant's DNA. Mostly they do it naturally to copy genes that produce a root tumour in which they thrive. But it can be loaded with any DNA payload you wish, and are in fact how people do GM on plants nowadays. But they can also occasionally copy the wrong payload between plants and _may_ be for example how the roundup resistance gene got copied from Monsanto's wheat to some wild weeds.
So, best case scenario, you get plants that glow in the dark too. Worst, you end up with, say, wheat that's toxic.
I don't think one should underestimate what can go wrong when you start giving bacteria new genes, and certainly not based on gross over-simplifications of what they do and how they work.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Viruses and hosts co-evolve toward NOT killing the hosts. Many peoples and species have been ravaged by viruses toward which they have no immunity
A human being has access to huge amounts information about the target, and is not operating by selective pressure. They can copy and paste large segments of human DNA and have access to modern immunosuppression knowledge.
A biocracker is also not limited to natural processes. Normally, specialty DNA (targeting, tracking proteins, toxins) might be sufficiently disadvantageous to prevent spread, but the release of a large culture of modified influenza in a shopping centre fountain or neubilised in near air outlets, for instance, could be disastrous.
I like to do things myself: make bread and cheese, build my own computers and do landscaping, build sheds, chop firewood, knit, sew, try to repair everything I own at least a couple of times before I admit defeat.
It's what I like to do.
Earlier this year I was diagnosed with adult onset type 1 diabetes, and ever since I've been slowly realising that I'm completely dependent on modern society's medical system. This in itself is OK, but I have been tinkering with the idea of attempting to "produce" (I realise this could mean extract, or synthesise, or ...) my own insulin. It wouldn't have to be much and I don't even know if I'd attempt to inject it myself, although I would attempt to get its structure and purity verified so that at least I knew I'd done it right.
This is just an open-ended question: if there are any molecular biologists out there could they suggest the easiest method for me to attempt insulin production at home?
Assume I have the chemistry and technical skills to perform distillations, run a PCR machine, know when to use a fume hood, handle solvents and acids without killing myself, that kind of thing.
Suggestions welcome!
You need to up-think your evolutionary reasoning.In a an optimal parasite/host relationship the parasite doesn't necessarily desire the extinction of its "habitat". Flu virus is more "successful" than Ebola. I agree that it is pure hubris to think that humans can do one better than evolution in the design side of things -- HIV is only nine genes and we still can't lick it. The danger, as the parent suggests, is that some hobbyist could insert a toxin gene in a virulent bacteria/virus that could cause a lot of pain and suffering.
I'm not sure there is any upside to hobbyist gene modification. Using PCR tools to augment "natural" traditional breeding techniques has some merit. GM should only be done under strict supervision.
I'm all for DIY home innovation and experiments, but this is going to be illegal pretty soon. Well not outright illegal, but like this: DIY Home Science Under Attack
Whatever happened to Veeb's stuff anyway?
Eschew Obfuscation
as someone who makes a pretty decent living doing PCR and growing e coli and doing DNA sequencing, I ain't worried - DIY biotech is no more a threat to the industry then DIY computer chips: you could probably buy reject wafers and etch a circuit on it in you backyard, you ain't never gonna threaten INTEL or AMD
"...looks just like something perfectly harmless that people would normally carry around with them in their pockets will make a killing."
Uh, it is EXACTLY the killing thing that I am worried about.
"What are the Steve Wozniaks of biotech working on right now?"
I'm working on no-light methods of producing fodder grass crops in insanely rapid time for raising livestock, high efficiency LED-based horticultural lighting, and LED-powered biofuel production.
What are the rest of you guys working on?
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
for my neighbor to make a tomacco plant. Refreshingly addictive!
What other people think of me is none of my business
You Nexus, huh? I design your eyes.
Have no idea how boring doing molecular biology actually is. The endless pipetting of clear liquid from one vial to another, forever. The data is interesting, but getting there is agonizing.
Count me in the 'scared shitless' category. I was alarmed by the biotech trend years ago, so much that I wrote fiction about it. That fiction story has now turned into my webcomic, Genocide Man.
Everyone who says we shouldn't worry because bioengineered germs aren't very virulent is missing the point. Virulence is an editable trait. They experimented with calicivirus in 1995 to make it more infectious to rabbits, to help cull the Australian feral rabbit population. They came up with a bug that was 99% lethal even when the animals were vaccinated beforehand and treated after they got sick. As soon as some Open Source nutcase figures out how to do that to E. Coli we will have a serious problem.
And once the first home brew plague hits the news, the authorities are going to crack down on this hobby harder than anything you've ever seen.
But don't mind me. I'm just the dance band on the Titanic. You all go ahead and keep partying.
Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
A biotech story! ENOUGH with the Space Nuttery. Those loons have had DECADES to show any results for their foaming, raging, deluded fantasies. NONE of them are even close to being realized, and never will. And so what? Good riddance to 50 year old fantasies.
Biotech will bring new toys first. RC biobirds that flap their wings and need sugar and water instead of batteries. Then LIFE EXTENSION. FINALLY.
Pretty cool, one biotech story every six months, with the potential to save millions of lives.
Space Nutter whackery and jizz is spurted here on a weekly basis.
Let's see, potential to live longer, or going in a sub-orbital tin can to look out a window for five minutes... Hmmm, decisions, decisions....
No evil genius necessary.
Cheers
Ash
http://www.medgle.com/
This may give new meanings to the geek words "virus" and "infected".
Nate
I'd like to point out that there are large numbers of untrained people engaging in largely unsupervised DIY Bio that is FAR more advanced than anything done in any professional laboratory, let alone a home one.
Further, this activity has already resulted in the release of extremely dangerous organisms being released into the wild.
The current DIYBIO is mostly about as dangerous as raising and breeding animals as far as the bio part.
The chemicals involved might be some hazard. But, we already deal with pretty bad hazmat in our daily life. Look at gasoline. Toxic as a vapor in common concentrations, volatile, highly flammable, even explosive, likely carcinogenic. You'd never get it onto the market nowadays.
I'd worry more about picking up already known zoonosis (anthrax, brucellosis, tularemia, glanders, and a whole host of parasites already extant and well adapted just to name a very few) from animals than making something either accidentally or intentionally.
In fact, if you raise pigs and ducks on the same farm, you're probably more a source of danger since flu virii can go back and forth between the pigs, the ducks, and you/you're family and develop the mutations to cross species.
Making a microbe that can survive and outcompete the wild types isn't easy. Making one that subverts the immune system better than the wild types isn't easy. It's been done, but generally by nongenetic engineering methods (passing it through multiple hosts of the target type and selecting for the worst cases, etc. See the biowar programs of the US, WW-2 Japan, and the USSR for examples).
What are the Steve Wozniaks of biotech working on right now?
The destruction of all life .. of course.
... ok then. Never mind. We're all safe.
Oh, wait, they asked what the Woz's of biotech are working on
Hey everybody,
If you thought the hardware and equipment mentioned in the Nature article was awesome, you can find more about OpenPCR at the openpcr.org website. Happy to answer any questions!
Tito
openpcr
I think this could be really interesting when garage electronics hackers and garage biohackers combine forces. Like, for instance, find ways to use lymphocytes as biocomputers. If for whatever reason your experiment gets shut down you could always inject the cells into your bloodstream.
Regards, Vergil
You should fix that to “less than lethal” or better yet “mostly harmless.”