When maker culture meets biology
Printing out your DNA and cancer-fighting virusesBiohacking, DNA robots and 3D printed viruses – unbelievable things have become possible in biotech. They could not only immensely advance research on prosthetic limbs or gene therapy, but even soon provide a cure for cancer. Read More
Anne Weston, LRI, CRUK. Wellcome Images wellcomeimages.org
The 21st century’s maker culture
The 1900s – so long ago it seems – are often called the century of physics due to the incredible list of scientific breakthroughs including quantum physics, the theory of relativity, neutrons and supernovas. The 1900s were also when mass production came of age and a middle class of mass consumers developed.
For a while it seemed that people might not need to fix or create anything for themselves or their homes ever again, as it was so much easier to throw out the broken and buy something new. Some big-ticket items were out of reach of consumers though, so motivated individuals banded together to create new products like the personal computer, leveraging the advances made in physics and disrupting the established players. This led to small teams of hackers, geeks and nerds in garages disrupting the big software companies or just exposing unmet needs.
Then came the 2000s, an era when people love making things. 3D printing is a household term: to order a 3D print is almost as easy as it is to order a pizza. It’s cool to be a geek and hang out in the garage inventing software, hardware, furniture, robots, gadgets and crafts. We’re often mashing things up to create smart things, connected things, turning the world into an Internet of Things. Many of us are doing this to help Mother Nature out. We can get a better sense of our consumption of energy and water along with the pollution we’re creating, and so lower our environmental impact.
Biohackers: debugging the programming language of life
Some are taking this even further. Many are predicting the 2000s will be the century of biology. The Human Genome Project has helped us understand our DNA. DNA is the programming language for life.
The charity CBM Canada and the University of Toronto have created a new process for developing prosthetic limbs at lower cost. ©ginger coons/semaphore 
Genetic biologist Andrew Hessel printed his own virus last year. Click to watch the video. Hessel works for Autodesk, a company known to makers and designers for its CAD software (computer-aided design) that enables three-dimensional modelling and for its 3D printing tools. Autodesk could help democratize tools for biology, as it has for architecture and engineering. - See more at: www.tea-after-twelve.com/all-issues/issue-02/issue-02-overview/chapter3/when-maker-culture-meets-biology/
Understanding this code will provide us with better insights into our health. Debugging this code could prevent the mutations that lead to cancer. Medication could be installing new programs in our bodies and giving us upgrades.
Just like the personal computer disrupted mainframes, we can expect that big pharma will be disrupted. They are already clearly circling the wagons and limiting their areas of research. Like any large corporation, taking on new ventures is expensive and they are circling their wagons and limiting their areas of research. It is time to bring on the guys in the garage who do it as a hobby and the people who see a new angle on how to solve some of our problems and combine them with our familiar making tools.
Charitable organizations like CBM Canada, which is dedicated to helping people with disabilities, are teaming up with research labs, such as one at the University of Toronto, to create a new process for developing prosthetic limbs at lower cost. Companies like GlySens are creating sensors that can be implanted in a human body to make health monitoring more continuous and less troublesome.
In the future he aims to create a virus that could attack cancer cells.
Hacking 3D printed cancer-fighting viruses
“I really wasn't expecting to be called a biohacker but I don't mind,” says Andrew Hessel, a cell and genetic biologist, who printed his own virus for $1000 last year. He worked out the DNA sequence and sent it to a lab to be synthesized. Two weeks later he had it back. Sounds a lot like sending a model out for 3D printing, doesn’t it? Hessel’s virus, known as PhiX174, was designed to attack E. coli bacteria and is not dangerous for human beings. In the future he aims to create a virus that could attack cancer cells.
Hessel works for Autodesk, a company known to makers and designers for its CAD software (computer-aided design) that enables three-dimensional modelling and for its 3D printing tools. Autodesk could help democratize tools for biology, as it has for architecture and engineering. - See more at: www.tea-after-twelve.com/all-issues/issue-02/issue-02-overview/chapter3/when-maker-culture-meets-biology/
Hessel works for Autodesk, a company known to makers and designers for its CAD software (computer-aided design) that enables three-dimensional modelling and for its 3D printing tools. Autodesk could help democratize tools for biology, as it has for architecture and engineering.
Interested parties can try some of the tools that Hessel used:
• a 3D molecular viewer to visualize biological data, from macro-molecular structures to whole organisms, to build predictive models for biomedical research,
• a robotic wet lab controller, where scientists can rent space in a robotic lab to help with their experiments, just like programmers use cloud computing to scale their capabilities.
How about a nano-robot built from self-assembling DNA that could carry a payload to attack cancer cells?
Instead of a virus to attack cancer cells, how about a nano-robot built from self-assembling DNA that could carry a payload to attack the cancer cells? That’s what researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering are working on. They have created a free tool called CADnano to design such machines.
Will the next big thing come from a “citizen scientist”?With freely available tools and low cost DNA printing, the world of possibilities is really opening up for scientists and biohackers. What’s really exciting is that the next big breakthrough might come from a small team or a motivated individual – a citizen scientist!
Of course, these breakthroughs may have to deal with non-technical hurdles. On its website, the upcoming Biohacker Summit 2015 notes: “Merging of the man and the machine is no longer just a prediction. Implanted chips, gene therapy, bionic arms, biometric shirts, robotic assistants, and virtual reality are for real.” With talks on nanomachines and internal computing, the practical and moral issues of artificial intelligence and transcending what it means to be human it will certainly touch on many of the important issues in the new world of maker biology.
