Biohack

[Anonymous No.455853]

Hey /diy/!

So I was wondering if there are any biohacking /diy/ers?
I started a biohack lab recently in a hackerspace I am involved in.
So far we have an air filter and positive pressure system. We are putting a UV light up next week that will just pop on at night for a few hours to keep the room cleanish and hopefully installing our work bench. We have some pretty good DIY petri dishes with agar too.
The plan is to set up a continuous culture tank, 3D print a centrifuge and grow some nifty cultures within 2 weeks.

I could post some photos of the space if anyone is interested.

[JO Flamino No.455857]

I'm interested! what do you plan to do with your current setup?

[Anonymous No.455863]

>>455857
The long term project is to insert bioluminescence into a plant. That is a year or two in the future though.
There is a great kickstarter trying to the same thing in the US.
For now we want to grow bioluminescent fungi and then bacteria in a continuous culture.
We also hope to get some diy bio-diesel guys on board so we can work on those organisms.
At the moment we are basically three guys actively driving the project so we have to focus on one project at a time.

The hackerspace we are using and getting tons of support from are www.house4hack.co.za

Pic is of our first petri dish agar setup

[Anonymous No.455994]

>>455863
Look into biogas methane digestors as well. They use anaerobic bacteria to break down organic material into methane gas (around 70%-75% methane mixture) and high nitrogen fertilizer.

[Anonymous No.456028]

Someone say biohacking?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-Dv6dDtdcs

[Anonymous No.456035]

sounds awesome.
wish i had something like that for my mycology.

[Anonymous No.456056]

This sounds risky, and extremely crude. Anyways, get a proper gass burner and some metal rods for culture transfer, and always sterilize the needles after each transfer. Download some relevant OSH manuals for bio labs and read them. Create a make shift autoclave to sterilize all equipment. You'll also need a growth chamber, selective and differential media (YEPD, EMB, MSA, etc) gloves, coats, glasses, etc. Buy some used pipettes on ebay and a decent microscope from amscope. Again don't release anything to the outside, autoclave everything.

[Anonymous No.456058]

>>456056
>Create a make shift autoclave to sterilize all equipment.
Standard ghetto autoclave that all good ghetto surgeons use is a pressure cooker.

[Anonymous No.456070]

>>456058
Most pressure cookers don't go up to 134 degrees or higher though, which can be a problem.

[Anonymous No.456088]

>>456028
>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-Dv6dDtdcs
wow...horrible vid. do not watch.

[Anonymous No.456098]

>>456088
Did she not inspire you to cut open your body and shove things inside it?

[Anonymous No.456110]

>>456098
oh, but she really did. only, ive already got an opening for which to shove inside what she encouraged me to use....that is...a gun in my mouth.

[GreenGC No.456112]

Hope you've got insurance or a good lawyer for the inevitable T-Virus outbreak.

[Anonymous No.456114]

>>456070
A steam pressure canner is quite fine to use for sterilizing items. 10lbs of pressure is around 240F/115C and plenty to completely sterilize items if you are under 1,000 feet altitude. If you are above you kick it up to 15lbs pressure (around 250F/121C).

It is the amount of time that matters most. Normal steam autoclaves are around 250F/121C and are used for 15-20 minutes to sterilize with. Personalty, I'd go up to 90 minutes depending on the thermal mass of the items I'm sterilizing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoclave

You can use non-steam baking methods to sterilize, but that takes 3+ hours and is really only good for very large items that can't fit into an autoclave.

[Anonymous No.456131]

>>456110
:D

[Anonymous No.456175]

>>456114
>You can use non-steam baking methods to sterilize, but that takes 3+ hours and is really only good for very large items that can't fit into an autoclave.
You have to use it on anything where sensitivity to certain proteins is an issue. So if gram negative bacterial proteins are a problem, or something like transmission of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease. If you just don't want certain cells to grow it matters a lot less, but you find tools for stuff like brain surgery are baked at high temperatures for prolonged periods still.

[Anonymous No.456217]

>>456175
>Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease

That is caused by prions though. Not bacteria. You're the first person to mention brain surgery in this thread, that I know of. Just bake it longer then.

[Anonymous No.456271]

>anon wants to make bioluminescent plants

How? How the hell are you going to do that without state of the art stuff

[Anonymous No.456299]

>>456271
>state of the art

That tech is not longer state-of-the-art.

[Anonymous No.456401]

>>455853
OP, I hope you succeed.

Transhumanist community needs more hackers, biohackers, tinkerers, biomodders, freelancing engineers and anyone smart and not burdened by BS that we can get.

There are books available on this, but I would just recommend to sticking to public libraries with good hard science.

Also, think of making a group/team/club. Get more people involved.

We can't leave science behind closed doors or it will die.

Good luck.

*Seriously, no sarcasm.

[Anonymous No.456517]

>>456217
Read the post again bro, the issue is proteins, not bacteria. To denature proteins you need higher temperatures as well as longer cook times, which is why any equipment used for invasive surgery gets baked to 400 degrees celsius or so for sterilization. This can be an issue for certain kinds of cell cultures. I.e. not just a problem for larger items.

And don't forget biofilms, the bane of many a person's life.

>>456271
They are going to need to spend in the high tens of thousands unless they get very lucky as far as lab equipment goes. If they're willing to repair some stuff and very gradually build up equipment they might be able to go a bit cheaper. There seems to be this idea given on the internet that it's easier to do than it is for the past few years.

[Anonymous No.456520]

>>456517
I thought about making the same complaint, but then I re-read and realized you were talking about the higher temps and proteins.

Could have been more clear, but you did cover it.

[Anonymous No.456578]

what does transhumanism have to do with biohacking?

one is subdermal implants the other is playing god with biology

[Anonymous No.456661]

>>456401
You obviously don't know your shit. American copyrights don't apply in the rest of the world and we're just behind America anyways. The problem of transhumanism is that it's 200 years in the future, not some conspiracy shit.

[Anonymous No.456664]

>>456578
>the other is playing god with biology

By that analogy engineers are playing god with mother nature and doctors are playing god with the human corpus. Most likely OP won't go past high school biology, most fail when they have to start reading boring stuff.

[Anonymous No.456666]

>>456664
>most fail when they have to start reading boring stuff.

If it is boring stuff to them then they've already failed. It should not be boring in the slightest if that is what they want to do. It is only boring to people that don't want to do that sort of thing in the first place.

[Anonymous No.456851]

>>456666
Not true at all, I'm studying bio at uni and even though I love it more than anything it does become painful to pull through the curriculum some times. Not everything is equally interesting, and the theory can be very dry at times. The chemistry is also somewhat heavy and require dedication to get through.

[Anonymous No.456871]

>>456666
No true Scotsman is an informal fallacy, an ad hoc attempt to retain an unreasoned assertion.[1] When faced with a counterexample to a universal claim, rather than denying the counterexample or rejecting the original universal claim, this fallacy modifies the subject of the assertion to exclude the specific case or others like it by rhetoric, without reference to any specific objective rule.

[Anonymous No.457267]

>>456661
>>456871
Are you schizophrenic?

[Anonymous No.457300]

>>457267
no, and that's two different people you're quoting.

[Anonymous No.457305]

>>455853

Awesome OP, If I were you I would just use the tried and true method of 10x10 room made from 2x4,plastic,nails,staples. From there pick up as big of glass as you can find for cheap(This will be the door to the vent-hood). Then go about buying some plastic panels and screws and build a box. Buy some air-duct and get a fan/filter in between. Might also invest in another fan to blow you down before entering into the area/putting on dedicated lab-coat. Biohacking.

Of course get some lab supply's and just go for it.

[Bump No.457481]

Bump

[Anonymous No.458719]

OP again

>>456035
We have access to some Armillaria, which glows in the dark. It is pathogenic, so we need to complete the lab and make sure its safe before we grow it.

>>456028
This is not my scene unfortunately, I can't even decide on a tattoo let alone diy implants that serve no real function.

>>456056
>>456058
we have an autoclave going using a pressure cooker bu we still have to sort out this >>456070

Also I am working with a microbiologist and a geneticist, both Msc, I am a bioinformatician myself so we know the risks.

>>456114
thanks for the info

>>456271
so.. we have a podcast that explains everything, but it is still being edited, I'll post it when I can!
Basically we are looking at the techniques used when the field first started. Its a lot of hit and miss stuff. Read up on biolistics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_gun
this is the kind of brute force we'll resort to

>>456401
Thanks for the support anon, I hope to get some transhumanist involved later even though I'm not so keen on doing it myself. I agree that science needs to happen in public spaces! Hopefully we can get this hub going. Will keep /diy/ posted on our progress

>>456517
We hope to keep the cost down, the university near us has a "garage sale" every quarter and we have scouted some great equipment from there.

>>456578
>>456664
We are just planning to do what already happens in private laboratories all over the world. We know this can be done the point is doing it open source. We have personal computing, personal genetics is coming, Id just like it to be accessible to everyone.

>>456666
agree! this is my passion, I plan to be part of a linux equivalent in the biotechnology field. It must happen or the poor and middle class will fall behind on a genetic level, it is a scary thought.

>>457305
we are trying to do it in a hackerspace where people already work on quadrocopters, diy 3d printers and software development. http://www.house4hack.co.za/

[Anonymous No.458720]

>>457481
Oh and the bump is much appriciated

[Anonymous No.458735]

Just make sure you ask yourself important questions before you get started.

Where are you going to get/make the GFP/luciferin/whatever construct and where will you get your Agrobacterium? If you're making your construct, where will you get your reagents and thermal cycler? Will you be doing tissue culture, and do you have a really sterile place to do that?

If you don't have a small heat block, I recommend getting one. They are useful for incubations, and heat shock is works fine so you won't necessarily need to get/use electroporation equipment when it comes to bacterial transformation.

[Anonymous No.458777]

>>458719
>We hope to keep the cost down, the university near us has a "garage sale" every quarter and we have scouted some great equipment from there.

Which university is this? What a splendid idea.

I see >>458735 mentioned Agrobacterium, why don't you use plasmids instead of biolistics? For one you don't need as much equipment and it has proven reliable for transferring firefly luciferase gene to produce glowing plants. essentially all you need is your plant, the bacteria, some petri dishes and growth media. And it's been used since the 70s and is a fairly standard method these days.

[Anonymous No.458779]

>>458777
You still have to insert the gene into the plasmid, but yeah. If you insert a gene for antibiotic resistance too only the plant cells who have successfully got the new genes will be able to grow on a growth medium with antibiotics. You can grow whole plants from single plant cells. Obviously plasmids are only viable for dicots, but I don't see any reason why you would want to use monocots anyways?

[Anonymous No.458784]

>>458777
Its the University of Pretoria, in South Africa. It is a great idea and a life saver for buying glassware especially.
We looked at just using plasmids, and would probably end up doing this. The biolistics just seemed like a fun project and a neat piece of equipment to have in the lab. The actual point of the whole project is to have a driving force behind building the lab and developing equipment.
So for now we are focusing on getting the room sterile and sorting out a growth medium. Next step is to get some continuous cultures of bioluminescent bacteria going, I was thinking living lava lamp kind of setup

[Anonymous No.459045]

This might be slightly off-topic, but could some of you recommend good learning material
conserning what OP is trying to do.

Not going to try and do this myself, just lacking knowledge in this field and
I would love to get a better picture about what is involved in making a lab like this and
the whole process in question.

[Anonymous No.459649]

>>459045
I had a quick look through these. They seem like a great place to start!

[Anonymous No.459650]

>>459649
>>459045
Forgot link sorry
http://wiki.london.hackspace.org.uk/view/Project:Biohacking#Resources

[Anonymous No.459721]

>>459650
That BBC video made me kinda embarrassed. We did that stuff in high school. I don't get why they don't just get a bachelor instead?