biohack in a school lab

edited August 2016 in Community
I saw a thread about a possible project to become immortal-ish using replication incompetent virus carrying a transgene ... interesting;

http://forum.biohack.me/discussion/221/safety-concerns-in-using-replication-incompetent-hiv-based-lentiviruses-for-dna-tranduction./p1

sounds like one of the main issues is the $$$, as you'd likely need to buy many vials (aliquots?) to see any effect.

So I'm just wondering, if you wanted to do something like this, can't you make the stuff on your own?
Yes the OP talks about needing to buy purification kits etc. then, which would get very expensive, too... so.....

Why not just use a lab that already exists and has all the necessary equipment, like... at your school?

I mean if you have access to a university lab, can't you just say you are working on an independent research project (which is sort of true) and make a bunch of vectors, transgenes, or whatever, with all the lab tools and machines they have available for you? Isn't that the most cost-effective way?

And if you're not in school, can't you enroll in a 1 credit science course to get lab access...?

Or does it just not work like that? Like you'd get in trouble if you tried to do that? Sorry I have no clue, and I'm new to biohacking, and I'm not sure if most of you guys are Biology majors/researchers or what (I'm neither)...

Comments

  • I honestly don't know but what you say sounds like a great plan but I don't think the true equipment that is needed would be readily accessible even in that setting. Maybe some basic type equipment but the higher end not so much.( probably in very prestigious school it is)

    My school had nothing for lab equipment to use and most schools that you can just enroll in a 1 credit course are community colleges otherwise you need to be accepted and have great grades and testing scores.

    Also my school wasn't a community school and it still didn't have much in the way of lab equipment.
  • I also forgot to say getting ahold of HIV seems like a very hard thing to do. I imagine you can't just google it and buy it off amazon.
  • A few of us have access to University Labs. The problem is that reagents and materials are super expensive and that is what you use for purification and the like. No matter what you are doing, you end up spending money, not just on hardware.

    I would put forth that using expensive materials borrowed from a University may be frowned upon.
  • what your asking kind of sounds like theft. i went to a CC and they had extremely strict access to the biology lab where the equipment was kept. colleges in america are profit machines, so they won't readily give anyone lab access, because the cost of the equipment, also, safety concerns, the last thing want is some amatuer running around with a bunch of chemicals and equipment that costs thousands of dollars and hurting himself. 
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