Biohackers, welcome!
Bio-technologies for the people
The first free biohacker laboratory opens in the USAIvan Kulikov, "Newspaper.
Ru»High-tech biotechnologies, monopolized by corporations, the state and scientific institutions, have gone to the people: the first biohacker startup opens in California with open cheap access to a professional scientific laboratory.
A hacker biomaster, crammed with fancy equipment, renting a tiny office on shares with a laundry and a Chinese diner, is a duty picture in a science fiction novel or a cyberpunk movie. Now an imaginary future in which the latest biotech, which allows programming living matter, is available not only to corporations and the elite, but also to the broad masses, is becoming a reality: in California, in the town of Sunnyvale, the first BioCurious biohacker farm was opened with voluntary donations collected through the Kickstarter portal, the equipment and services of which can be used by anyone willing for a fairly reasonable fee.
"After graduation, I found a job in the financial sector," Eri Gentry, founder and executive manager of BioCurious, a financier by education, told SFGate in an interview. "But I wasn't sure if this was my way. I wanted to do something socially useful. It sounds corny, but as I got older, I realized more and more that the problems facing humanity could no longer be solved without the participation of science," admits Gentry, who moved from New York to California two years ago, where she and two friends – molecular biologists - organized a startup biotech company in a small garage.
"We looked at business incubators and startups in Silicon Valley and realized that we were unlikely to be able to work on such a scale: we were not going to generate income, we were thinking about something more useful," explains Gentry.
She and her colleagues decided to implement the idea of an open scientific project based on hacker ethics, that is, the desire to independently and thoroughly understand a particular technology, in this case molecular genetics and biochemistry.
The lack of funding made it necessary to use all available resources as efficiently as possible, actively attracting expert volunteers, in which Silicon Valley does not experience a shortage. "For people like us," Gentry recalls, "even small pennies were always converted into something worthwhile."
The garage was gradually furnished with professional laboratory equipment – donated (one of the startup's tasks was to organize research on cancer cells and the molecular mechanism of metastases) and purchased at auctions, among which there are, for example, such "serious" devices as a DNA sequencer and a biomolecular replicator.
Last summer, Gentry and her companions decided to put their project on Kickstarter, a network portal that collects voluntary donations for startups. During the year, he received the support of 239 people who donated $35,319 to biohackers from California.
Startup founders draw inspiration from hacking traditions
and a modernized version of Faustian – aesthetics "mad scientist" // BioCuriuos
With this money, a room with an area of 800 sq. m was rented, equipment was purchased, installed and debugged by a team of volunteers – professional biologists and laboratory assistants, who also help the startup with biosafety issues, bio-waste disposal and in conducting scientific and laboratory trainings for BioCurious participants.
The first biohacker farm, consisting of a laboratory, an office and a coworking area, mandatory for a collective startup, for collaboration and exchange of ideas, will open its doors next week.
For $150 per month, anyone over the age of 18 with any level of scientific and laboratory training gets access to the coworking area and to equipment (gel electrophoresis and polymerase amplifiers, microscopes, incubators, centrifuges, refrigerators, reagents, etc.), the list of which is constantly being updated.
Already absolutely free of charge, anyone can listen to a series of lectures introducing the problems and methods of biotech (starting with theoretical genetics and ending with the principles of operation of research equipment), prepared free of charge by enthusiastic scientists. At the same time, the basics of biotechnology are presented by lecturers in a simple, layman-friendly language. The main principle of BioCurious is "innovations in biology should be easily accessible, inexpensive and open to everyone."
The project is ready to cooperate with high-tech entrepreneurs (managers who bring investors together with scientists and inventors), biochemists, geneticists and in general any biotech enthusiasts who want to get inexpensive access to professional equipment in order to test their ideas in the laboratory, develop new technologies, conduct scientific research, exchange information or gain experience. At the same time, the project managers, as PhysOrg notes, do not claim any intellectual rights to the discoveries and technologies obtained within the walls of BioCurious.
"Create genetically modified organisms, decode DNA, develop the tools and technologies necessary to launch your startup, establish new contacts among newcomers and experts," the organizers urge on the BioCurious website.
In fact, BioCurious is trying to use an open source strategy in the field of biotechnology – a "self-managed anarchy", run-in by a community of computer hackers and developers of open source software.
Eri Gentry does not hide that the main source of inspiration for her was HackerDojo, a hacker startup community in Mount View (California) that exists for small membership fees ($ 100 per month), uniting engineers, programmers, digital artists and computer geeks, recently actively sponsored by major IT companies.
But if HackerDojo is focused on computer development, then BioCurious extends hacking methods to fundamental and applied science – biochemistry, molecular genetics and genetic engineering. And there is no doubt that the ideals of open source will produce the same explosive democratizing effect in the field of biotech that hackers who make the hidden publicly available, and the very expensive – very cheap and even free, have produced in the software industry: biotechnologies are rapidly developing, equipment and materials are getting cheaper, the number of specialists graduated by universities is huge, and the recent decision The European Court of Justice, which restricts the use of stem cells, makes the United States an even more attractive place for ambitious Frankensteins looking for where to apply their talents. "Ultimately, Apple, Microsoft and other IT giants also started with garages," Gentry notes.
However, unlike the mentioned companies, BioCurious will operate on completely different organizational and motivational principles. The world's first biohacker startup is a new type of R&D platform: it is no longer a business enterprise aimed at "devouring" investments and making a profit, but an easily accessible scientific service using cloud technologies, producing new knowledge and new projects that can develop into a business in the future.
Biotechnologies are entering the era of the open source industry, and the fears of some skeptics that initiatives like BioCurious may pose a threat to humanity in the form of dangerous GMOs, highly virulent strains of bacteria, cloning and other horrors in the spirit of Hollywood comics, Eric Gentry characterizes as paranoid. And she's right: the more open the technology, the less likely such threats are, which are fraught with developments that are not controlled by society, obtained within the walls of secret state, corporate and terrorist organizations. The industry of open source software, free of viruses, spyware bookmarks and copyright, clearly illustrates this thesis.
On the other hand, there is no way to exclude the known and not yet known risks associated with biotech developments, especially if amateurs, non-certified specialists and criminals begin to get access to biotechnologies. Trainings on safety and disposal of biomaterials in BioCurious are provided by volunteer scientists, however, it is still unclear how control will be carried out when such "bio-ateliers" begin to breed like mushrooms. Self–regulation, code publicity and associated risk reduction, as in open source, is a good model, but do not forget that computer viruses and dangerous malware are developed by free hackers too.
Anyway, regarding the possible risks, the organizers of the people's biotech startup are very optimistic. "Such concerns are simply ridiculous,– sums up Gentry. "The anticipation that we will finally open next week gives me a pleasant nervous shiver."
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru20.10.2011