Amateurs Give Genetic Engineering A Try

(AP)  The Apple computer was invented in a garage. Same with the Google search engine. Now, tinkerers are working at home with the basic building blocks of life itself.

Using homemade lab equipment and the wealth of scientific knowledge available online, these hobbyists are trying to create new life forms through genetic engineering - a field long dominated by Ph.D.s toiling in university and corporate laboratories.

In her San Francisco dining room lab, for example, 31-year-old computer programmer Meredith L. Patterson is trying to develop genetically altered yogurt bacteria that will glow green to signal the presence of melamine, the chemical that turned Chinese-made baby formula and pet food deadly.

"People can really work on projects for the good of humanity while learning about something they want to learn about in the process," she said.

So far, no major gene-splicing discoveries have come out anybody's kitchen or garage.

But critics of the movement worry that these amateurs could one day unleash an environmental or medical disaster. Defenders say the future Bill Gates of biotech could be developing a cure for cancer in the garage.

Many of these amateurs may have studied biology in college but have no advanced degrees and are not earning a living in the biotechnology field. Some proudly call themselves "biohackers" - innovators who push technological boundaries and put the spread of knowledge before profits.

In Cambridge, Mass., a group called DIYbio is setting up a community lab where the public could use chemicals and lab equipment, including a used freezer, scored for free off Craigslist, that drops to 80 degrees below zero, the temperature needed to keep many kinds of bacteria alive.

Co-founder Mackenzie Cowell, a 24-year-old who majored in biology in college, said amateurs will probably pursue serious work such as new vaccines and super-efficient biofuels, but they might also try, for example, to use squid genes to create tattoos that glow.

Cowell said such unfettered creativity could produce important discoveries.

"We should try to make science more sexy and more fun and more like a game," he said.

Patterson, the computer programmer, wants to insert the gene for fluorescence into yogurt bacteria, applying techniques developed in the 1970s.

She learned about genetic engineering by reading scientific papers and getting tips from online forums. She ordered jellyfish DNA for a green fluorescent protein from a biological supply company for less than $100. And she built her own lab equipment, including a gel electrophoresis chamber, or DNA analyzer, which she constructed for less than $25, versus more than $200 for a low-end off-the-shelf model.

Jim Thomas of ETC Group, a biotechnology watchdog organization, warned that synthetic organisms in the hands of amateurs could escape and cause outbreaks of incurable diseases or unpredictable environmental damage.

"Once you move to people working in their garage or other informal location, there's no safety process in place," he said.

Some also fear that terrorists might attempt do-it-yourself genetic engineering. But Patterson said: "A terrorist doesn't need to go to the DIYbio community. They can just enroll in their local community college."

[debinok1]

They are afraid that someone is going to come up with a cure for cancer or an alterntive fuel in their kitchen and they wont get the money or the credit.

[random_radar]

The government sponsors bio warfare with the intention of killing people en masse. A framed piece of paper with Ph.D. on it doesn''t make a person competent or responsible (despite what they think). Letting the government regulate and restrict biological research will not protect us, it will just prevent us from getting more and better discoveries.

If the government and self-important stuffed shirts think they can risk (or attempt to) destroy life on this planet, then certainly everyone has the freedom to experiment.

What did they used to say? "If man were meant to fly, he would have wings!" Same old cliche argument against free inquiry. Maybe someone will develop a gene for growing wings. In the mean time, we should not grant a monopoly to government approved researchers to do biotechnology.

[rwsmith29456]

Everyday people used to tinker with cars and radios. Then it was computers. Now it''s genetic engineering.

[robert7562]

Amateurs Give Genetic Engineering A Try.

...Huh, kind of like when Amateurs Gave 401k''''''''s A Try.

Posted by sockpuppet4 at 04:18 PM : Dec 26, 2008

..or electricity or light bulbs or telephones or automobiles or lp records,8tracks,casettes,cd''s,dvd''s or airplanes or computers.......
all done by so called "amateurs"

Let inovative people inovate.

Posted by Andrew0120 at 12:43 AM : Dec 27, 2008

EXACTLY

BTW thx actornaught

[andrew0120]

Wow... some you you have seen WAY to many movies. Let inovative people inovate.

[wl7bzh]

How bout a yeast that can turn cellulose into ethanol or methanol? Or has that been done already?

[actornaught]

Posted by Robert7562 at 06:55 PM : Dec 26, 2008

EXCELLENT point, thank you.

[robert7562]

Amateurs Give Genetic Engineering A Try.

...Huh, kind of like when Amateurs Gave 401k''''s A Try.

Posted by sockpuppet4 at 04:18 PM : Dec 26, 2008
..or automobiles or airplanes or computers.......

[tmittelstaed]

Nature uses cosmic rays, radon, and other background radiation to create genetic mutations in viruses and other lifeforms all of the time. Yet the human race has been dealing with this for the last 5 million years just fine. The real objections the commercial bioengineering people have are that some amateur with $1000 of used Craigslist equipment will create a patentable product that they, with their tens of million dollars of equipment, missed creating.

[runningralph]

Amateurs engineering genetics mutating bacteria to detect melamine? Melamine has been used in virtually every school cafeteria plate in the US since the fifties. This is not a good reason to meddle with nature. Bacteria mutations could create something that would make anthrax look mild. The human race has been on top for a long time, let''s try to keep it that way.