Stem cells are funny. They are either a miracle cure for anything that ails you or you’re baby killer for working with them. But like, stem cells are just cool. Can we all just chill out a bit? Crack a cold beer and extract some from our belly fat so we can play with them?

Want to learn how to grow Human cells? Check out our Human Cell Kit

Are you thinking what I'm thinking then? Why hasn't anyone DIY extracted their own stem cells by taking a little fat from their body? It sounds like so much fun. Maybe you weren't thinking that? But I hope you were. This is the way most of my projects start. Finding something interesting that can be done if people just put in a little time and effort to figure out how to do it. See most of these mesenchymal stem cells come from fat tissue extracted for liposuction or something similar and most protocols are for that. What if instead you just used a syringe and stuck it into your belly and pulled on the plunger? That's kind of a DIY liposuction right? This is generally when I get to the point of thinking that the idea is either too crazy or just the right amounts of crazy. And let's be honest I always try it. Once my brain has thought hard enough about something it's almost impossible to just not do it. So in typical fashion I talked to the other members of the Central Dogma Collective (CDC), David Ishee and Dariia Dantseva, about it. David wanted to use a scalpel to cut a big hole in his belly and pull out fat which was waaayyy crazier than my idea. Dariia, back in worn torn Ukraine, was all in if she could manage to find the materials needed which was no small feat over there right now.

So I convinced David that we should use a syringe and not a scalpel and we went for it.

I didn't imagine it would be so easy for being so hard. We decided we would stick a 16g needle into our belly and suck some fat up, soak it in collagenase to detach cells from each other and from the fat, and then put it in media that would help the stem cells grow. That does seem real easy. The hardest part of the whole thing was going to be getting the cells. That didn't bug me so much because I have a really high pain tolerance. I have enough piercings and tattoos, done enough drawing of my own blood and injecting myself with shit, that I am not unfamiliar with pain. I experience pain on a regular basis just on account of being me. It still hurts when I do these things but it doesn't Hurt. It's like, I've just learned to redirect that portion of my brain when experiencing pain. I've experienced pretty traumatic pain in my life. I once fractured both my ankles rock climbing by myself and needed to hike a mile back to my car. I definitely passed out for a second when I got there. That wasn't as painful though as when I had my vasectomy surgery. They literally did surgery on me without anesthetic. They didn’t inject enough. I almost puked, I almost fainted, I was clammy and pale but sweating profusely. Since then that's how I scale pain, nausea is borderline too much pain and then when I feel lightheaded and dizzy I've gone too far. Everything else is just meh. This is all to say I chose to extract my fat without any lidocaine anesthetic because I wanted to feel like I was invested, like I was sacrificing something for these cells. To me, for my art, there usually always needs to be sacrifice. Usually that sacrifice is time and effort but in this case it was pain and a literal piece of me.

When the day of came I was pretty calm. I wore a pink shirt so any blood stains would blend in. I asked David if he wanted to go first but he declined on account of he wanted to learn from my mistakes. Seems logical but come on fam. There wasn’t much work up to it. I cleaned my skin with alcohol and then went for it. When the needle went through my skin there was a little pop and it shook David a little bit. Something I think he was not looking forward to. It didn’t really phase me. I've stuck myself with enough needles to know that I'm a slow stabber. I like it to be controlled and steady but that also usually means more pain. At least this time I get to put that pain on the alter of art. That wasn't the painful part though. Fishing around underneath the skin with the needle and trying to suck out fat hurt. I mean, it hurt 70 year old Johnny Cash style. Occasionally, I would snag some tissue and it would send a shooting pain through my abdomen that would send another drop of sweat down my back but I couldn’t stop. Not after I had gone that far. After about 10 minutes of that I could feel the nausea. Well probably after 5 minutes but I had to keep going till some fat tissue actually came out. I never imagined I would be so happy to see that yellowish gelatinous fatty glob. I just started laughing, kind of like that inappropriate hysterical laughing that can only happen after suffering through something only to see it succeed. I didn't puke which was good. David’s turn.

He gladly used anesthetic after he saw what I went through. He also took far less time to acquire his fat. He was right. Next time I go second. Processing the samples was pretty simple. The fat actually separates pretty well when you mix it in liquid like any oil would. Shake it up a bit and centrifuge down anything that will centrifuge down and there ya’ go. We couldn't really be sure we had stem cells until we added chemicals to make them change into different cell types but that also worked out fairly well using standard recipes others had used. I now have Jo-neurons, Jo-bone and Jo-fat growing in the incubator along with my stem cells.

What's next?

Trying to grow tissues and mini organs called organoids. Seeing just how much bone we can grow. And trying to see if stem cells alter the healing time of wounds. Imagine having an incubator of stem cells at home to use every time you get a cut.

When I do one of these experiments, these pieces of performance art, I hope it pushes us closer to that biopunk future I want to live in. Still not quite there though.

If you want a more detailed protocol of what went down check out the CDC website at http://the-cdc.com

I’ve never been much of a prepper. My family has though. My biological father was an OG prepper back in the 1980s. Weapons and everything. Then in 1999 when my uncle, who just so happened to be the Pastor of the church we attended, said that the Y2K computer bug was going to cause an economic meltdown and computer systems would cease to function, my family did a little stockpiling.

Since then, I have been a little hesitant to be a prepper. I feel like I have already dodged two apocalypses and I shouldn’t push my luck. A few months ago, I had this urge to see how difficult it would be to make the penicillin antibiotic by growing Penicillium. Surprisingly, It was easy. You add the fungus to some liquid culture media and it secrets the antibiotic into the liquid. Well, that’s cool. Me and the team started dreaming about how we could drive around in abandoned ice cream trucks and create a post-apocalyptic drug empire by selling people antibiotics. What else is possible then? What else would people need in a post apocalyptic biohacking kit?

While things like clothes are going to be plentiful, thanks to Shein and guns, thanks to the NRA. Food, medicine and electricity will eventually be much harder to get. The cool thing is that they can all be produced biologically. To this end we are releasing a apocalypse prepper kit at The Open Discovery Institute that contains biological organisms in hermetically sealed containers to help you survive the apocalypse.

Medicine

Antibiotics

Some estimates say that Penicillin alone has saved over 200 million lives and adds 10 years to the global life expectancy. The cool thing about antibiotics is that a number of the original antibiotics were discovered because they are produced in naturally occurring in microorganisms. Many modern antibiotics are more complicated and developed through chemical synthesis methods or modifications of some of these original antibiotics. But the truth is that despite the fear mongering of antibiotic resistant infections, a lot of these original antibiotics still work. That’s not to say they work for all infections and all organisms but they do a pretty good job.

So why don’t we use penicillin nowadays? There are a lot of reasons but most of them stem from the fact that modern antibiotics that are really similar to penicillin work across a broader spectrum and have less side effects and allergies. The great thing about penicillin is that it can be easily produced with the fungus Penicillium chrysogenum which is included in our Prepper kit.

It’s pretty simple, add some Penicillium fungus to water and nutrients, and the penicillin antibiotic is secreted into the liquid. Because the fungus grows on top of the liquid, surface area is important, i.e. you should use something that is long and flat rather than tall and skinny. Producing antibiotics can take 1-4 weeks depending on growth conditions. Generally, when the Penicillium mat starts to become the thickness of a pencil or so, you should definitely have antibiotics. These mats can be cut up and will regrow when used to inoculate new liquids.

In our experiments, we found that you can grow penicillium fungus on any liquid that contains some amount of nutrients. What does nutrients mean? Generally, all organisms need a carbon source, a nitrogen source and micronutrients. Sugar, honey, fruit or any plant matter generally will contain sugar but meat doesn’t. Nitrogen is less important than carbon and usually anything that isn’t pure sugar also contains nitrogen, so not much of a worry. Same with micronutrients. Soil is also a good source of micronutrients, so sprinkle and little in to help with the growth and antibiotic production no matter recipe you use for your liquid.

Post apocalyptic growth media ideas for penicillium

1. Sugar, dirt and water
2. Mashed or ground up fruit and water
3. Boiled vegetation, cool before use
4. Milk(whether old or not)
5. Honey and water
6. Most non-meat foods can be used mixed with water and probably pretty much all processed or canned goods

Because penicillin doesn’t work against all infections we also decided to include Streptomyces griseus in our Prepper kit which is a bacteria that produces the antibiotic streptomycin.

Streptomycin works on a broad spectrum of bacteria and in certain doses can even work on some fungi. It is a good complementary antibiotic to penicillin. Despite being bacteria it’s growth and antibiotic secretion are very similar to Penicillium. You can follow the same steps outlined above for growth and production of Streptomycin.

Other medicines

Cancer drugs like Taxol come from the bark of yew trees and while yew trees aren’t included in our Prepper Kit (obviously, it’s a tree). It’s a good thing to know.

Insulin is a very important drug to many people alive today. Originally, insulin was obtained from animal pancreases, but now it is produced through genetically modified organisms. A goal of ours is to eventually include a method and genetically modified organism that can produce insulin. It’s a work in progress.

Food

Obviously, plants are a great source of food. But if you’re one of those people who thinks that you just plant a tomato seed and magically, weeks later you have food it’s not gonna happen. Farming takes planning, timing and work. Not to mention it requires that you be in a single location for an extended period of time. Our Prepper kit is for when you need food in weeks, not months. When you might not have lots of sunlight or water. Or maybe just want to supplement your diet. Organisms like algae and mushrooms can provide a very reasonable diet and are very easy to produce and require very little care from you.

Mushrooms

For our Prepper kit we chose one of the easiest to grow mushrooms, Oyster mushrooms. They are an excellent source of protein, fiber and potassium. Oyster mushrooms can be grown on almost any material that contains cellulose. Examples of things you can grow oyster mushrooms on are clothing, books, decaying organic matter, natural fiber furniture like couch cushions or curtains, and so much more. The great thing is that mushrooms don’t require sunlight. So if you’re trapped in your bunker somewhere or there is nuclear winter, you can produce a consistent source of food. Given the right conditions, these mushrooms will take only 2-4 weeks to fruit. Mushrooms also store well after being dried out and the spores that form underneath the cap are easy to store for growing more mushrooms.

Algae

Algae is seriously one of the best food sources and one of the easiest to farm. It contains fats which can be hard to come by, protein and calories in abundance. The strain of algae included in our Prepper Kit is Chlorella vulgaris. We chose Chlorella because it is really good at growing without the need of external supplements like many algae. Literally, they only require water and sunlight to grow. Depending on growth conditions, the doubling time for the algae is 3-4 days so once you get up a good size culture you can be churning out lots of algae. Algae doesn’t grow well in tap water, but you probably won’t have access to tap water after some catastrophe. Rain water, lake/pond/river water or any water that comes from the environment works best. If you must use tap or distilled water, make sure that you add soil or some form of nutrient source like those listed above for growing other organisms. The cool thing about algae is that you are really only limited by your container size. A pool filled with rainwater and a good starter culture size and you can produce an abundance of food. Run the water through a fabric to collect the algae and dry it for long-term storage.

Electricity and Chemistry

Electricity is going to be hard to come by and solar panels will eventually break down and batteries will run out. Fuel can definitely be generated by creating and distilling alcohol, but since yeast is so abundant in our natural environment I imagine most people won’t need a source of yeast. I have a feeling that batteries and electricity will eventually be in short supply, so being able to create batteries from scratch will become very important. An electrochemical battery can be created by combining metals and acid. Where do you get acid from? Natural sources of acid can be hard to come by but there are certain bacteria that will happily produce acetic acid(also known as vinegar) from sugar. In our Prepper kit we included Bacillus amyloliquefaciens. This bacteria has the added ability to produce thick biofilms that can be used as biomaterial textiles for clothing or fabric.

A wet pile or voltaic pile battery can easily be made by sandwiching metals between acetic acid soaked pieces of paper or cardboard or similar. A battery like this can be made as easily as sanding down one side of a modern penny to expose the zinc and leaving the other side copper then stacking the pennies in the same orientation separated by paper soaked in acetic acid. This can produce around 0.5v per penny at low current but enough to power things like LED lights.

Acetic acid can be used in a wide variety of synthesis methods in chemistry including the synthesis of aspirin. Take some salicylic acid from plant leaves, some hydrochloric acid from an animal stomach and acetic acid and you can make some amounts of aspirin.

As we explore this world of post apocalyptic biohacking we will continue to add more organisms to these kits but for now we think we have done a pretty good job in exploring the initial landscape of biohacking the apocalypse. 

At The ODIN, our mission goes beyond offering top-notch contract research services. We are dedicated to empowering individuals and organizations by providing expert consulting services led by Dr. Jo Zayner, David Ishee, and our team of talented scientists. In this blog post, we'll explore how our personalized consulting can revolutionize your projects and help you achieve the desired outcomes.

The Value of Expert Guidance

Our consulting services are designed to provide you with expert insights and guidance tailored to your unique research needs. With vast experience across various fields, including genetic engineering, metabolic assays, and cellular research, our team is well-equipped to help you overcome challenges, optimize processes, and drive innovation.

Customized Solutions for Your Research Needs

Our consulting services are tailored to suit your specific requirements, whether you're a startup, a small business, or an independent researcher. We work closely with you to understand your goals, identify potential roadblocks, and develop customized strategies to accelerate your research and boost your chances of success.

Partner with The ODIN for Success

By choosing The ODIN's consulting services, you gain access to a network of leading experts in the field, including Dr. Jo Zayner, David Ishee, Lera Niemackl and many more within our reach. Our team is dedicated to helping you achieve your research objectives, offering strategic advice and hands-on support that can transform your project.

Take your research to the next level by partnering with The ODIN's consulting team. Reach out to us today and discover how our expertise can drive innovation, efficiency, and success in your project. Experience the difference that expert guidance can make, and unleash the full potential of your research endeavors.

Check it out today: https://www.the-odin.com/consulting/

At The ODIN, we recognize the power of exceptional research and are determined to make it accessible to everyone, irrespective of their budget. With our diverse range of services led by the biohacking pioneer and CEO, Dr. Jo Zayner, we strive to deliver top-quality contract research without breaking the bank. Our expertise sets us apart in a human-centric and approachable manner for exploratory researchers and beyond.

A Personal Touch to Cellular Research

Our team specializes in working with bacterial, yeast, human, and animal cells across a wide array of applications. Whether it's genetic engineering, metabolic assays, or other advanced research domains, our scientists have the skills and passion needed to tackle any project, regardless of its complexity. At The ODIN, we pride ourselves on offering a personal touch, ensuring each project is treated with the care and dedication it deserves.

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What truly sets us apart in the contract research landscape is our commitment to affordability. We believe that high-quality research should be within reach for everyone, including startups, small businesses, and independent researchers. By offering our services at a fraction of the cost of traditional research organizations, we empower you to access world-class expertise without being burdened by excessive costs.

Our adaptability and flexibility are key components of the value we bring to the table. Simply provide us with your project details and budget, and our team will work closely with you to develop a research plan tailored to your unique needs and financial limitations.

Driven by the Visionary Dr. Jo Zayner

The ODIN's outstanding reputation stems from our CEO, Dr. Jo Zayner. As a trailblazer in the biohacking community, Dr. Zayner's passion for democratizing science infuses every aspect of our organization. Under her guidance, our team constantly pushes the limits of what's possible in the lab while remaining committed to delivering cost-effective research solutions.

The ODIN's contract research services offer an unbeatable blend of expertise, affordability, and adaptability. Our extensive experience in various cell types and research applications makes us the perfect partner for any project, big or small. By joining forces with our team, guided by the innovative Dr. Jo Zayner, you can unlock new research possibilities and catalyze groundbreaking advancements in your field, all within your budget constraints.

Don't let financial limitations stifle your research ambitions. Get in touch with The ODIN today and explore how our budget-conscious contract research services can help you achieve your research goals and dreams.

Check it out today: https://www.the-odin.com/contract-research/

Jo Zayner, PhD

Celebrity biohacker Josiah Zayner is under investigation for practicing medicine without a license. — A grueling and grotesque biohacking experiment: Josiah Zayner experiments with fecal transplants. — Josiah Zayner: the person who hacked his own DNA.

From the headlines it might be hard to believe but when I started down the career path towards becoming a scientist I didn't even know what a Biohacker was. I know, Jo Zayner doing boring academic science and not injected himself with shit, that's crazy, amirite? I'm definitely not the first Biohacker. Not the first to experiment on themselves or the first to do science in my apartment. I was just lucky enough to have been around since the early days of Biohacking. I have seen it grow from when it was just a bunch of people bitching on the diybio mailing list. I learned through all this that Biohacking is more than just doing science outside traditional environments. Biohackers are building something. Creating resources so _anyone_ can participate, even crazy people like Rich Lee. Biohacking has created a participatory feedback loop that will make sure one day their numbers are far greater than traditional scientists. That's what makes it so revolutionary. That's what makes Biohacking a modern invention.

It's not clear when the first “Biohack” happened. The first time say, someone genetically modified E. coli or some basic microorganism outside a lab. Maybe it was Rob Carlson circa the mid-late 2000s? There was the infamous arrest of artist Steve Kurtz in 2004 for growing bacteria and yeast but that seemed to lack the intent of Biohacking. It's even more complicated because the definition of Biohacker is pretty fluid. Originally, the term and ethos were looked down upon so it wasn't really used. If you ask Hank Greely, Biohacker is still a pejorative. In the early days, the term “DIY Biologist” was more en vogue because it sounded less scary. Me though, I hate that term. It implies that a scientist outside a traditional lab is somehow inferior. They can't be a Biologist. They are a _DIY_ Biologist.

y tho?

When those inside and outside professional labs have access to the same equipment and resources. They can and do literally do the same work. So why does one group need a preface? To me the “DIY Biologist” name supports the same elitist academic science attitude that we/I are trying to destroy. What’s the point in just rebuilding a less funded academia? The DIY Biologists I know are trying to fit into the system while Biohackers are trying to break free.

I was in the system for many years I've seen it all and it's ugly under the surface of what the public sees. If you don't fit into the stereotype and fall into line your chances of academic success are nonexistent. There is an extreme lack of diversity both socio-culturally and of thought. It probably wasn't until around 2010 that I began to see myself as a Biohacker. As someone who didn’t fit in the mold. I was working on my PhD at University of Chicago at the time so as you can imagine I was an arrogant brash asshole. I was trying to publish my first paper. And after staring into the abyss one too many times I realized Academic science wasn't what I imagined. I wanted to work on the crazy stuff. The experiments everyone else was hesitant to do even though they were always on our minds.

What if?

And so I started doing experiments in my apartment in my spare time. I would fall asleep at the workbench in my bedroom at 4AM. I was enthralled. That freedom of expression I had through Biohacking drove me away from academia.

The sentiment of doing independent science seemed to be in the beer. It was weird because from like 2009-2010 the idea of doing science outside academia all of the sudden became kind of popular. The mailing list was blowing up with names that today are recognizable in the Biotech world. Two or three Biohackerspaces popped up across the US. It was a foundational time. People didn't really know what to do. Should we make GFP fluorescent yogurt? Sequence anal bacteria? Try and do something groundbreaking? Whatever it was the limited availability of resources made it so Biohackerspaces were where it was at.

It's funny that they are called Biohackerspaces considering most who venture there dislike the term Biohacker. A Biohackerspace is a lab that charges people for access, sometimes around $100-$200 a month. They have some general equipment and resources available but most supplies are self furnished. Ima be honest. Most spaces I have visited are generally more bougie than useful and are more like social clubs for tech people interested in science. I'm not against capitalism. I run a business that sells genetic engineering supplies. I get it. They need money to keep the doors open. It’s just sad that the practice of a free open lab doesn't exist even to this day. Would technology even be where it is today without free public access to computers? I dream of the day that’s possible with science. Because really, in order to exist without gatekeepers you need to remove the walls. (*sidenote La Jolla library did actually have a public biolab for a time - according to their website it is currently shut-down).

For science to truly be accessible anyone should be able to do any experiment at anytime anywhere. That's Biohacking. Then you're only limited by your imagination. Well, reality also. And um' laws, if the Feds are watching. Spoiler, they are.

I grew up during the 90s computer hacker era and was an active participant. I was part of the hacking group Legions of the Underground. 31337 I know. Everything was founded on the principles of radical access and autonomy. People don't own knowledge and we shouldn't be trying to control who can access technology. Innovation exploded. Science, the one field that should be forcible cramming knowledge into people’s gourds is instead one of the biggest gatekeepers of knowledge in the world. Expensive paywalls and PhDs required. How is everyone ok with that? I'm not ok with that.

Around 2014 I started my company, The ODIN. I left my job as a NASA scientist in 2016 to run it fulltime (←100% this sentence is superfluous and just to tell you I worked at NASA). The goal was to have a centralized website where Biohackers could get all their supplies for the lowest price on the market. Ease of access would mean more people would start doing genetic engineering in their kitchen. Experimenting on whatever they wanted. When technologies are made accessible it leads to creation. Even better, it leads to people creating beautiful things. The printing press, the automobile, the computer, NFTs. Wait, sorry, not NFTs. Science needs a little more of “Fuck it. I'ma just do that because it's beautiful.” That's Biohacking.

There weren't any genetic engineering technological breakthroughs between 2000 when there was no Biohacking and 2014 when it was common place for budding Biohackers to have genetically modified E. coli, a simple process that is a staple of modern genetic engineering labs. Putting DNA into an organism was done exactly the same way. IS STILL done exactly the same way. Once there was this nucleus of knowledge and skill things escalated quickly.

I injected myself with a CRISPR plasmid in 2017. Ostensibly, to genetically modify my muscles to make them grow bigger. I actually was trying to raise awareness about the possibility of Biohacking. It went viral. Despite being non-viral gene delivery.

I'm so sorry for that bad science joke.

Not long after, I was sitting on my couch and scrolling through Facebook. A post came into my feed, some randos we're going to do a live injection of a gene therapy to try and cure HIV. Whatttt the fuuuckkk. I thought it would be years before someone followed in my irresponsible footsteps. Things were happening way way faster than I anticipated. The fact that, my predictions were so far off scared me a little. It meant that Biohacking was out of everyone’s control. The press were thirsty for this shit and that encouraged a whole slew of injections afterward that probably made Biohacking look more crazy than competent. That’s Biohacking.

Biohackers began to push boundaries. Medical, surgical, genetic, you name it. Normally, in a traditional academic environment human experimentation would require forms and committees, meetings and approvals. Biohackers found their niche there. You don't need approval to test on yourself. And you don't need an ethics committee if you are operating outside an organization. I actually love where Biohacking is going. At first I was like, “Oh fuck, what have I done.” But that time period created the Biohacking aesthetic most people pursue nowadays. One that is imperfect and flawed for sure but one that favors brashness and style above all else. Let's be honest, if you are going to destroy the system you might as well do it in a brash and stylish way. That’s Biohacking.

To me, it all changed in 2021. Before any covid vaccines had been released to the public David Ishee, Dariia Dantseva and myself successfully made and tested a covid vaccine. We saw antibody responses which is more than the majority of people vaccinated in the world can say. Still, it was largely ignored by the mainstream press and I was banned from YouTube for life for showing people step-by-step how to do it. It was shocking. We were living in the future but the world couldn’t keep up. This is where I believe Biohackers can exist. At the intersection of the future and reality. We can create breakthroughs that are only being held back because of bureaucracy or fear. I’ve been banned, ridiculed and harassed by the government. Others will be also. That’s Biohacking.

Biohacking doesn't seem to be slowing down and that’s hard to comprehend when it went from virtually nonexistent to even beginners being able to engineer human cells in their kitchen in under 10 years. Individuals now have the Biotech power of governments and large pharma companies. And Biohacking is different. It's new. Despite being in the pitch-deck of every modern biotech CEO this is not like the computer revolution. No one had to create new technology for a DIY covid vaccine to exist. It is only the monopolization of knowledge and information by traditional science that has prevented biohacking from flourishing earlier and growing faster.

That should scare you.

The state of science is a tragedy. In interviews people always ask me how Biohackers will publish papers or participate in other ceremonial activities. My response is, "They won't". Biohacking isn't meant to be Science 2.0. It's evolved to become a completely new species distantly separated from its phylogenic origin. The way science is done hasn't changed much in the past 500 years and its shriveled corpse of outdated principles has been due a funeral for a long time. The thing that is going to save us from science?

That’s Biohacking.

We understood that in order for biological engineering to enter the home there needed to be an application. We needed to give people the ability to create something tangible and not just experiment with Science. For the past year we have worked on developing a kit that allows people to engineer yeast and not just lab yeast like our first yeast engineering kit, because despite our best attempts lab yeast was not good at doing the thing yeast should be good at i.e. making CO2 and alcohol from sugar. With our new kit we wanted to market it to home-brewers and others, so people could use it to make yeast and alcohol never seen or tasted before. Yeast are engineered and then eventually cultured by the user and it is up to the user to make sure that they take proper precautions in preparation so that the materials are food grade.

There are three main things to be worried about with new foods 1) Allergenicity, 2) Toxicity 3) Digestibility.

Allergenicity

The yeast kit we currently provide and future yeast kits we plan to provide create new proteins that are not normally in yeast. That means that there is a chance that these proteins could be allergenic. This is an interesting problem because we can't just feed it to humans to test it(though I and many others have consumed the yeast to no ill effects). So what Scientists normally do in a case like this is compare the new protein's amino acid sequence(protein's are chains of amino acids) to the amino acid sequences of all known protein allergens. If any of these sequences are similar there is a possibility of "cross reactivity" meaning that our new proteins could also be an allergen. From Generally Regarded As Safe(GRAS) notices filed at the FDA, most people use the University of Nebraska allergen database (http://www.allergenonline.org/) to compare their protein to known allergens. We ran the same test and there are no matches between any of our proteins and known allergens even using the most stringent matching criteria(8 amino acids). Many proteins currently in use in our food chain are determined to be GRAS by the FDA with much less stringent matching.

Toxicity

Are the proteins used toxic? To determine this researchers in GRAS notices use a similar technique that is used above, they compare the sequences of their proteins to a database of proteins and attempt to determine if the protein matches any known toxins or venoms. This time we used the Uniprot database (http://www.uniprot.org/blast/) as others have done. We could not find any reasonable matches that were either known toxins or known venoms. 

Digestibility

I don't quite understand the digestibility part yet and assume it is in regards to protein accumulation. As in, if the proteins are not digested they could accumulate and be hazardous. Most GRAS notices I have read either don't mention digestibility or just say something to the extent that "of course their protein would be digested". Pepsin is the main enzyme in our guts that digest proteins. Going to get a bit Sciencey here so stay with me. Pepsin cleaves preferentially at hydrophobic amino acids and more so at aromatic "hydrophobes", phenalalynine, tyrosine and tryptophan. All of our new proteins had in excess of 20 different cleavage sites. Meaning our new proteins should be easily digested. 

Argument Against Regulation

Currently, almost all yeast used to create beer has not had its genome sequenced. This means that despite the yeast being considered safe by the FDA we have no idea the exact proteins that are inside these yeast. The changes someone would make using our kit are known and can be screened for safety as seen above but "natural yeast" that have been in use are considered safe only because they have been in use and no one appears to have been harmed or died from them. Do any of them contain proteins that could be harmful? Unknown. Is it possible for a "natural yeast(Saccharomyces cerevisiae) to evolve the same fluorescent protein we are using? Yes, it is possible. In fact, yeast, especially in brewing evolve much faster than yeast in their natural environment because of selection pressures and quick generational turnovers because of optimum living conditions. During brewing, it would be trivial for yeast to accumulate mutations and difficult to test every new protein. This is good for incumbent industry but bad for technological innovation. I would assume at least based on reading GRAS notices(obviously I have not read them all), that very few if any of these yeast which have been evolved to have different characteristics and different proteins have been evaluated by the FDA. 

When you drink kombucha, the kombucha contains unknown organisms. Yes, that's correct, it contains a combination of yeast and bacteria that is unknown and different for every kombucha. None of the organism's genome, much less the proteins are known.

A San Francisco sour dough is made with a starter that was inoculated from the air. Yeast and bacteria(bacteria are usually what give it the sour flavour) are present in the bread and the species are unknown. Again, genomes unknown, proteins unknown.

Many beers, including Lambics and Sours are sometimes left open to the air to be inoculated by yeast and bacteria. The yeast and bacterial species are usually unknown, the genomes unknown, the proteins unknown.

Maybe the question the FDA and consumers should be asking is not whether a known protein used to change a yeast genetically is safe(we have showed above that they are) but whether there are unknown proteins in the yeast we currently consume that are harmful. It would cost less than $1k to sequence the genome of a brewing yeast.

There has never been a case of a protein added genetically to a food product that then later caused harm to people.

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What is a living thing but the expression of code being computed by reality? We're the manifestation of information moving through matter over time. Why not take control of that, why let chance determine what's written there? What about the life around us, why leave that code to chance? What about the viruses that rewrite our code for their own ends, or the code of the animals and plants we depend on?

My siblings and I were born with a genetic disease called a benign Genetic Neutropenia. We essentially didn't have immune systems until we each turned five. I spent the early part of my life in the hospital and the doctor’s office. Twice, I got bacterial blood infections around 1 year old and very nearly died. It was only thanks to the clever administration of a vaccine that stimulated my immune system into a response that I am alive. There is an error in my programming and it almost killed me and my brother and sister. I'd decided when I was young to never have children because I couldn't bear to suffer what my parents did. Life had other plans and luckily my daughter and son are healthy, as are my nieces and nephews, but they all likely carry that code and we have to watch carefully every generation. This is a very rare genetic disease and not something likely to get the attention of big pharmaceutical companies, especially when the regulations are so strict and the cost to invent a treatment is so high.

That's where the biohacker or citizen scientist can shine. Take someone like me who's motivation is personal, who wants to use technology to solve a problem, one that may not make business sense to solve. With the right knowledge and the right tools, there is no reason a group of amateur scientists can't solve the problems that aren't being addressed by the professionals.

I'm just beginning, I'm working with bacteria at the moment - learning to edit genes in them, and building the equipment needed to do it. Soon I'll move up to plants and animals. I'd love to help the dogs who are riddled with genetic diseases because of the blindness and crudeness of traditional breeding methods. They have shockingly high instances of genetic disease. Some breeds like the Dalmatian are all afflicted with the same disease thanks to institutional inbreeding. If their gene pools can be fixed, if dog breeders can test for and repair broken genes it will not only relieve a tremendous amount of animal suffering but it will serve as a proving ground for the techniques and tools needed to repair the broken code in us.

So much suffering and death can be avoided in the future. The randomness of the genetic lottery can be removed and replaced with personal choice. Our crops can grow more food on less land with less impact on the environment, our pets can live healthier longer lives, we can live healthier longer lives ourselves. We just have to take control of our own code and the code around us. Evolution is blind and heartless - it doesn't care about quality of life or happiness. It's just uses trial and error to discriminate towards reproductive efficiency. We can do better for ourselves, our families, and the species around us. This is something we should all have a hand in, this is our future and the future of our families. I know I want to spare my children the pain and fear my parents suffered watching all three of their children hover at the edge of death for years. I want to see what kind of world we could create, what kind of problems we could solve if millions of us worked together to find and repair the errors, to optimize the code of life. I'll be working towards that end, and I'd like to challenge anyone reading this to ask yourself two questions. If you had the power to fix or rewrite that code what great thing would you do with it, and why don't you?