Doing biotech in my bedroom
February 17, 2012 | Source: Technology Review
(Credit: DIYbio.org)
A new generation of “do-it-yourself” (DIY) biologists embraces the DIY ethic of computer programming.
Cathal Garvey dropped out of a PhD program at a big cancer lab two years ago to set up to equip a $4,000 laboratory in his parent’s house.
His goal: show that biology can be done in an open-source fashion and on a shoestring budget. Instead of beakers, he uses recycled jars. A sterilizer is rigged from a pressure cooker and a hot plate. To feed his germs, he boils potatoes into a starchy mix.
George Church, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, helped pioneer the DIY movement in biology. One reason he thinks the trend can’t be dismissed is that the cost of both synthesizing and decoding DNA molecules is now falling five times faster than the cost of computing power.
Comments (6)
by daevid
Fear is the enemy. If someone messes up, then whoops. If you try to stop people from doing these things, then yikes.
by RobinSongs
Well, good thing there aren’t many people who chose the name ‘Razor’.
by Bland
I see now that it is believable that one could create a virus strain–make it almost impossible to develop a vaccine and release it on the general public? Wasn’t that the belief of many when AIDS first appeared and dismissed because no would believe a individual or even our government would think of doing something so horrible.
by Peter Simmons
Best not to confuse the experiments with mother’s cooking.
by Razor
Can’t wait to get my hands on my bio-lab. I’m going to gene splice a slow-progress, incurable flesh eating virus with a highly contagious strain of flu. Well several flu strains, carefully chosen so it’s really tough to produce a vaccine.
by Smack
lol