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‘Stop Stabbing Yourself,’ a Biohacker Tells His Daredevil Peers

‘Stop Stabbing Yourself,’ a Biohacker Tells His Daredevil Peers

(Bloomberg Businessweek) -- With every new technology, there are pioneers and there are renegades. Take the Homebrew Computer Club, which foreshadowed the personal-computer revolution with its own do-it-yourself machines in the 1970s and ’80s. Ever since the science of genome editing promised to make tinkering with biology as easy as rewriting a piece of computer code, DIY types have argued that this cutting-edge medical science should be available to anyone who wants an alternative to exorbitant drug prices—or to modify or enhance their own biology using technology. At conferences and on social networks such as Facebook, these self-styled biohackers have shown a flair for the dramatic. One injected himself with the gene-editing technology Crispr at a synthetic biology conference. Another dosed himself with an untested gene therapy at a conference called BodyHacking Con in an attempt to cure herpes. One man’s DIY effort to cure his HIV resulted in a bad reaction on his midsection, where he stuck the needle.

While the daredevils impressed some in their audiences, they often freaked people out. In July, California passed legislation intended to discourage DIY gene editing, and state regulators have also said they were investigating one biohacker for practicing medicine without a license. Some of the self-taught scientists say that the window to beat the establishment has closed, and now it’s time to join ’em. Speaking at the annual Biohack the Planet conference last month, Gabriel Licina, a chef who once developed his own night vision eyedrops, summed up the mood from the podium: “I would like to propose that we grow up a little bit,” he said. “Please, for the love of God, stop stabbing yourself.”

‘Stop Stabbing Yourself,’ a Biohacker Tells His Daredevil Peers

Biohackers seeking to free science and scientific achievement from the ivory tower have come to realize that they may have to borrow from its conventions, such as seeking peer reviews for their work. Instead of the conference’s traditional home in a ramshackle community space in Oakland, Calif., Licina spoke in a bland room at a Renaissance Hotel off the Las Vegas Strip. He announced he’d developed a gene therapy for a rare blood disorder—a $7,000 generic alternative to a $1 million corporate drug—but rather than calling for self-experimentation, he appealed to peers to help refine and test it. This year the conference added poster sessions so that scientists, biohackers, and companies could show off their latest research. Some 150 people attended, most of them paying $199 for a ticket, and a venture capital firm was among the sponsors. Biohacker attendees discussed plans for commercial ventures. In the first half of this year, synthetic biology startups raised $1.9 billion in funding, on track for record growth, according to SynBioBeta. “I would actually like people to start doing responsible work,” says Licina. That means peer review and outside testing, not just stunts.

The biggest biohacker success story thus far is EmbediVet, a health tracker for livestock that started out as a DIY biometric implant for humans. The company behind it, Livestock Labs, saw more of an initial market opportunity targeting animals and received $2 million in early funding from Australia’s livestock industry group, Meat & Livestock Australia.

Most DIY gene therapy experiments in people have failed or fizzled out. Todd Kuiken, a researcher at North Carolina State University’s Genetic Engineering & Society Center who studies community science labs, says one measure of success for biohackers would be if they could create alternative pathways for careers in science, as computer hackers have for software engineers.

Josiah Zayner, who runs Biohack the Planet, has started a biotech boot camp that trains people to get corporate science jobs through an online curriculum. He says it’s a way to help ensure the spirit of the biohackers survives in a more thoroughly professionalized genomics industry, though he adds that it’s far from ideal. “All good things come to an end in capitalistic societies,” he says, “because people figure out how to profit off of them.”

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jeff Muskus at jmuskus@bloomberg.net, Rebecca Penty

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