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posted by Fnord666 on Friday February 23 2018, @12:43PM   Printer-friendly
from the that-ship-has-sailed dept.

A Biohacker Regrets Publicly Injecting Himself With CRISPR

When Josiah Zayner watched a biotech CEO drop his pants at a biohacking conference and inject himself with an untested herpes treatment, he realized things had gone off the rails.

Zayner is no stranger to stunts in biohacking—loosely defined as experiments, often on the self, that take place outside of traditional lab spaces. You might say he invented their latest incarnation: He's sterilized his body to "transplant" his entire microbiome in front of a reporter. He's squabbled with the FDA about selling a kit to make glow-in-the-dark beer. He's extensively documented attempts to genetically engineer the color of his skin. And most notoriously, he injected his arm with DNA encoding for CRISPR that could theoretically enhance his muscles—in between taking swigs of Scotch at a live-streamed event during an October conference. (Experts say—and even Zayner himself in the live-stream conceded—it's unlikely to work.)

So when Zayner saw Ascendance Biomedical's CEO injecting himself on a live-stream earlier this month, you might say there was an uneasy flicker of recognition.

Ascendance Bio soon fell apart in almost comical fashion. The company's own biohackers—who created the treatment but who were not being paid—revolted and the CEO locked himself in a lab. Even before all that, the company had another man inject himself with an untested HIV treatment on Facebook Live. And just days after the pants-less herpes treatment stunt, another biohacker who shared lab space with Ascendance posted a video detailing a self-created gene therapy for lactose intolerance. The stakes in biohacking seem to be getting higher and higher.

"Honestly, I kind of blame myself," Zayner told me recently. He's been in a soul-searching mood; he recently had a kid and the backlash to the CRISPR stunt in October had been getting to him. "There's no doubt in my mind that somebody is going to end up hurt eventually," he said.

The cat's out of the bag, dawg! You're just another anti-progress bio-Luddite now!

Previously: Biohackers Disregard FDA Warning on DIY Gene Therapy
"Biohacker" Injects DIY Herpes Vaccine in Front of Audience and Facebook Live


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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @12:50PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @12:50PM (#642339)

    What are you waiting for...? This rancid, feces-filled, parasite-infested asshole of mine isn't going to inject itself with sticky goodies! Get your fetid, disease-ridden cock over here and experience the sensation of it being enveloped in mushy feces! What say you?

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