Beginning Biohacking
Hi all,
I was just wondering if anyone had an idea on where I should start? There aren't any nearby biohacking groups where I am. I can't afford a thermocycler right now but I should eventually be able to get one. Any resources or projects you guys could recommend would be helpful.
Thanks
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I'm new here as well, but it seems that Neodymium magnet implants in the fingertips (for the purpose of sensing EMF) are a popular and (relatively) safe way to get started and test your mettle. I'm saving up and sourcing supplies for such an implant currently :)
You know, a PCR isn't difficult to make. Beyond that... there are a lot kits from places that are great to play around with. For example, there are kits which allow a person to take the bioluminescent genes from a jellyfish and make glow in the dark bacteria etc. No PCR needed. You might start somewhere like Edmund Scientific.
Honestly, I'd start at a local college. I'm not saying you have to get your masters or anything, but a microbiology course is a great place to start.
I'm hoping to working on something and, like IHateUserNames, I need some guidance for where to start. My background is in molecular biology, to the extent that I've done some PCR reactions, a little genetic analysis and gel electrophoresis, and on two occasions genetically modified bacteria with plasmids (once just for the sake of it, once for a professor's cancer research).
Long story short, I can do some basic genetic engineering. Are there any current or potential mods which could benefit from my input at the moment? As Cassox pointed out, this site doesn't currently have much genetic engineering going on, so I'm struggling to find things to do. I don't currently have a lab set up, so that'd probably be the first step once I get a project to work on. Otherwise I can just lurk around here and wait for potential ideas I can use. (oh, and I'm trying to think of a way to make a glucose based power source using GM bacteria, but it's a little beyond what I can do just yet)
Something cool to consider: MAD Insulin. I'm totally going to write up a blog on this at some point. Research is showing the intranasal insulin has some heavy effects on cognition. It doesn't do much for FSBS, but is showing pronounced effect in Alzheimers Dementia. A few studies have shown people to actually recover functions and show a decrease in amyloid plaques. For those who aren't familiar with the AD disease process, this is akin to saying we've made an Aids vaccine that has 100% efficacy, or cured cancer or something. Alzheimers is like the sixth leading cause of death so this is a big deal. Furthermore, intranasal insulin has shown promise as a nootropic. I'll let you read the literature and decide for yourself if you buy it, BUT my subjective experiences have been VERY positive. Do you know how the vast majority of insulin is made?
GM Bacteria. Sure, you can't buy a prescription drug like insulin OTC, or sell it online, but dude! You culture me some bad ass insulin bacteria and you'll never have to worry about a source again.... more or less.
The Gibson method sounds promising, so hopefully I won't need to bother
getting a thermocycler. One major problem for me is that I'm moving
around a fair bit over the next year and a half, but I'll see where and
when I'll be able to get started.
And I like that chitin idea,
I'll make sure to post in the body armour thread if I come up with
anything useful. I can't find much about biological chitin production,
but if there's
only one or two enzymes necessary for it's production then it could be
viable. Although it seems like keratin would be easier to produce from
modified bacteria, since it's a protein rather than a polysaccharide.
I'm in the middle of exams at the moment so shouldn't devote too much
time to researching this (I have been anyway) but hopefully I'll be more
productive in a week or so.
The main questions I can't seem to find the answer to is what is the end result when chitinase breaks down chitin, and are there chitin synthases that work on this substrate?