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Man Who Attempted DIY Gene Therapy Found Dead

posted by chromas on Thursday May 03 2018, @03:45AM   Printer-friendly
from the biohacked dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Aaron Traywick, a biohacker who once injected himself with an untested herpes therapy on a crusade to expand access to medications, was found dead on Sunday morning in Washington, DC, police confirmed to BuzzFeed News.

Traywick, 28, was found in a spa in Northwest DC, according to police. Staff discovered him in a sensory deprivation flotation tank, according to his colleague Tristan Roberts.

His body was taken for an autopsy, and his cause of death was not immediately known. Their investigation is still ongoing, but the police say they don't suspect foul play.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/stephaniemlee/aaron-traywick-biohacker-died

Also at Newsweek and the BBC.

Previously: "Biohacker" Injects DIY Herpes Vaccine in Front of Audience and Facebook Live (Aaron Traywick)
Biohacker Regrets Injecting Himself With Gene Therapy in Front of a Live Audience (Josiah Zayner reacting to Aaron Traywick)

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  • (Score: 3, Touché) by mobydisk on Thursday May 03 2018, @03:55PM (5 children)

    by mobydisk (5472) on Thursday May 03 2018, @03:55PM (#675122)

    The guy was a living experiment. If he died in some unrelated way - drug use, tank malfunction, etc - then we lost the data that he risked his life to create. That would be a shame. The shame would be compounded if his death was self-induced. Why make yourself a living experiment, then kill yourself before publishing the result?

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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday May 03 2018, @05:02PM

    by takyon (881) <{takyon} {at} {soylentnews.org}> on Thursday May 03 2018, @05:02PM (#675149) Journal

    The bigger waste would be if this incident gets used to dissuade potential biohackers, or even worse, if it encourages the passage of a draconian law attempting to regulate or criminalize DIY biology.

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  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday May 03 2018, @05:13PM (1 child)

    by bob_super (1357) on Thursday May 03 2018, @05:13PM (#675153)

    > Why make yourself a living experiment, then kill yourself before publishing the result?

    I see a result being published. The exact protocol of the experiment may require further clarification.
    I seem to be in the control group.

  • (Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Thursday May 03 2018, @10:55PM

    by Osamabobama (5842) on Thursday May 03 2018, @10:55PM (#675378)

    In unrelated news, the DC medical examiner's office has been the source of a lot of gene therapy patents.

    Well, not yet, but keep a lookout for it...

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 04 2018, @06:22AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 04 2018, @06:22AM (#675520)

    What he was doing was already a waste. He did an experiment with a sample size of one. Good luck getting any reproducible data out of so small a sample.