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A Biohacker Regrets Publicly Injecting Himself With CRISPR (theatlantic.com)
Sarah Zhang, reporting for The Atlantic: When Josiah Zayner watched a biotech CEO drop his pants at a biohacking conference and inject himself with an untested herpes treatment, he realized things had gone off the rails. Zayner is no stranger to stunts in biohacking -- loosely defined as experiments, often on the self, that take place outside of traditional lab spaces. You might say he invented their latest incarnation: He's sterilized his body to "transplant" his entire microbiome in front of a reporter. He's squabbled with the FDA about selling a kit to make glow-in-the-dark beer. He's extensively documented attempts to genetically engineer the color of his skin. And most notoriously, he injected his arm with DNA encoding for CRISPR that could theoretically enhance his muscles -- in between taking swigs of Scotch at a live-streamed event during an October conference. (Experts say -- and even Zayner himself in the live-stream conceded -- it's unlikely to work.) So when Zayner saw Ascendance Biomedical's CEO injecting himself on a live-stream earlier this month, you might say there was an uneasy flicker of recognition.
Ascendance Bio soon fell apart in almost comical fashion. The company's own biohackers -- who created the treatment but who were not being paid -- revolted and the CEO locked himself in a lab. Even before all that, the company had another man inject himself with an untested HIV treatment on Facebook Live. And just days after the pants-less herpes treatment stunt, another biohacker who shared lab space with Ascendance posted a video detailing a self-created gene therapy for lactose intolerance. The stakes in biohacking seem to be getting higher and higher. "Honestly, I kind of blame myself," Zayner told me recently. He's been in a soul-searching mood; he recently had a kid and the backlash to the CRISPR stunt in October had been getting to him. "There's no doubt in my mind that somebody is going to end up hurt eventually," he said.
Ascendance Bio soon fell apart in almost comical fashion. The company's own biohackers -- who created the treatment but who were not being paid -- revolted and the CEO locked himself in a lab. Even before all that, the company had another man inject himself with an untested HIV treatment on Facebook Live. And just days after the pants-less herpes treatment stunt, another biohacker who shared lab space with Ascendance posted a video detailing a self-created gene therapy for lactose intolerance. The stakes in biohacking seem to be getting higher and higher. "Honestly, I kind of blame myself," Zayner told me recently. He's been in a soul-searching mood; he recently had a kid and the backlash to the CRISPR stunt in October had been getting to him. "There's no doubt in my mind that somebody is going to end up hurt eventually," he said.
That's how evil super villains are created and super heros.
We were close to have Herpes-Man running around!!!
The Tide CRISPR challenge!
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
Anyone who has played Bioshock already knows how this all ends.
When he does it it's because he's a "social activist", when others do it it's because "to get press and get publicity and get famous".
*injects CRISPR*
*becomes raptor hybrid*
*open the door*
*get on the floor*
*everybody walk the dinosaur*
Where is the proof that the canister contained any active ingredients? My bet would be that the Ceo knew that it was only a saline solution and he injected him self to get some media attention.
Suddenly that flat-earther rocket dude doesn't like quite as foolish anymore.
If these Biohackers are successful, we will hail them as risk takers and pioneers. Nobel Prizes Winners who experimented on themselves
"What would you do for a Klondike Bar?"
Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
I'll be the first to day, I guess I'm not in these kinds of news cycles to know that bio-hacking was an actual thing taken seriously. This is just oozing epic levels glory-stunt bullshit. I honestly don't see this as any different than the Philadelphia Eagles fan eating horse shit other than this Josiah guy wearing a business casual suit, some shinny shoes he got polished in an airport, Skagen wrist watch and a $100 frat boi hair cut.
I think we have a new definition of silicon-valley-startup-investor-wrangling think tank triple-dog-dare you shit. What happened to all the simple attention getters in life wrapped in proven work, dedication and education? I guess I'm out of touch with what the new kids do these days.
We make a hundred or so mutants, in an effort to get a few independent events targetting the single gene we are trying to knock-out or replace. That's a success rate of a few percent if you can do math. That's much more accurate than before, but not accurate enough to be a medical treatment at this stage. We try to get a few independent mutants because of off-target effects (the CRISPR doing something to some other gene), if you have a few independent events, it's much more likely the gene you are testing actually does the thing you think it does. Otherwise, if you can't disprove off-target effects, you haven't actually proven it.
I will make a pedantic comment in response:
There's nothing fundamentally flawed or bad about the underlying technologies of both. They are well understood, practical solutions that can solve really important problems. CRISPR more than blockchains, but still.
The issue is the snake-oil sellers, confidence men, and their ilk. We call them startups now, but the same applies.
Anyone can take a product or process that isn't well understood and sucker rubes with it. It doesn't make that product or process illegitimate.
Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
There's some funky Darwin Awards around the corner.
Table-ized A.I.
Indeed. CRISPR and public blockchain are powerful technologies. In the 19th century, the railroad was a set of awesome technologies, ones that we depend on today for our modern economy, where almost every early company went bankrupt, while a few clever and ruthless insiders pocketed a lot of money. The past may be giving us hints about the present.