DIY Bio

Description

" Do-It-Yourself Biology ... aims to move science into the hands of hobbyists. It is starting by holding sessions where amateurs extract DNA, and attempt genetic fingerprinting using common household items and the kitchen sink.

"It shows you how much science can be about duct tape and having a few screws in the right place," Cowell said. "It shatters that clinical image."

What Cowell and crew hope to achieve is a democratization of science that could propel the field of biology into the mainstream, much as computer hackers fueled computer development a generation ago. After all, Silicon Valley's Homebrew Computer Club played a part in the personal computer industry and counts Apple Inc. founders among its attendees; Cowell would like DIYbio to be the Homebrew Club of Biology.

Cowell and his mostly 20-something friends are on a mission that seems inevitable to them, and is beginning to spark the attention, interest - and sometimes safety concern - of professional scientists. The recent shutdown of a lab in a retired chemist's home in Marlborough focused attention on the question of safety and the regulation of citizen scientists.

The movement is getting much of its steam from synthetic biology, a field of science that seeks to make working with cells and genes more like building circuits by creating standardized biological parts. The dream, already playing out in the annual International Genetically Engineered Machine competition at MIT, is that biology novices could browse a catalog of ready-made biological parts and use them to create customized organisms. Technological advances have made it quite simple to insert genes into bacteria to give them the ability to, for example, detect arsenic or produce vitamins." (http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2008/09/15/accessible_science/?)

Discussion

Security Issues

"Tom Knight, a senior research scientist at MIT who is cofounding a synthetic biology company called Ginkgo BioWorks, sees the transformative value of Biohacking - the phrase used to describe doing to living organisms what computer hackers have long done with electronics. But he has reservations about putting such power into the hands of amateurs.

"I think if the safety issues can be addressed, there is a big opportunity," Knight said. "It's a huge issue; how do you regulate so [people] don't cause havoc."

The promises and risks of biohackery were addressed in a paper this summer in the new journal Systems and Synthetic Biology. "A young crowd of enthusiastic biohackers . . . may spark a wave of innovation," wrote the coordinator of a European task force examining the implications of synthetic biology. But he cautioned that amateurs who don't adhere to a professional code of conduct and lack sufficient safety training raise the specter of biosafety and security risks." (http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2008/09/15/accessible_science/?)

More Information

1. DNA Hacking
2. Open Biology ; Open Source Biology
3. Citizen Science
4. diybio on the News Hour (YouTube)
5. DIY Bio 4 Beginners

Directory

Maintained by the Maryland DIY Bios Website: http://www.genoblasts.com/6.html

DIY- Bio

1. MIT on DIY: http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/646
2. do-it-yourself biology: http://diybio.org/
3. H+ magazine with related articles: http://hplusmagazine.com/digitaledition/2009-winter/
4. DIY hardware on the web: http://www.hplusmagazine.com/articles/toys-tools/hackerspace-your-garage-downloading-diy-hardware-over-web
5. Frequently asked questions about DIYbio: http://openwetware.org/wiki/DIYbio/FAQ
6. Pre-requisites to success: http://88proof.com/synthetic_biology/blog/archives/174

Local DIY Community Spaces

1. Harford Space: http://harfordhackerspace.org/
2. The Node - Baltimore City Space: http://baltimorenode.org/
3. Frederick County Biotech Community: http://fredcobio.wordpress.com/
4. HacDC - The Capital City Space: http://hacdc.org/

DIY-Bio Projects & Kits

1. Counter Top DNA - Thermocycler: http://makezine.com/07/fingerprinting/
2. Project: SmartLab: http://projectsmartlab.org/
3. OpenSource InkJet Nucleotide Synthesizer/MicroArray: http://genomebiology.com/2004/5/8/R58/