Synthetic biology in the garage: Biohackers' dreams
Biohackers: Do-it-yourself Molecular BiologyAnton Chugunov, "Biomolecule"
In the 21st century, science – especially physics, chemistry, biology – is almost never done by individuals, although truly brilliant ideas, of course, are still visited only by individual bright heads. The complexity and cost of the equipment and the experiments carried out on it have reached such a level that only well-equipped and funded laboratories can overcome the "threshold of entry" into science, as a rule. They also produce results that the world community believes, and the opinion of which is listened to by the administration of different levels. However, not everyone likes the mainstream – some time ago, a kind of "downshifting" with self-made home laboratories and genetic experiments "in their spare time" became popular in molecular biology. No, we are not referring to the last 20 years of Russian science – we are talking about the so-called biohackers. Who are they, who have replaced laboratories equipped with the latest technology and managers' chairs with garages with homemade equipment and test tubes?
They say that the time of brilliant individuals in science has long passed – the occupation of natural sciences inevitably entails complex equipment, expensive experiments and built infrastructure (in the case of molecular biology, this is an uninterrupted supply of reagents and genetic constructs, coordinated work of a vivarium, etc.). Of course, truly revolutionary ideas, like a hundred and a thousand years ago, only selected minds continue to overshadow, but testing a hypothesis and bringing research to a logical conclusion – for example, to a good publication – is an expensive and extremely time-consuming activity that has gone far beyond the capabilities of a single scientist. (We won't talk about the "genius" nuggets of modernity working in the laboratory in private marble mansions paired with political bigwigs right now.)
So, biological research is carried out at universities and research institutes, as well as in commercial companies of biotechnological and pharmaceutical profile. But is it really necessary to be a mathematician who needs only a pencil and a stack of paper, such as the famous Grisha Perelman, in order to contribute to science regardless of the academic and commercial structures built up?
It turns out that in the field of molecular biology there is a movement of enthusiasts who seek to conduct their research "outside the system". This is a community of independent amateur scientists conducting experiments in self-equipped home laboratories – someone to test their brilliant ideas, and someone - purely for their own pleasure, as it is customary to say among computer scientists, “just for fun” (English for fun). Since the roots of the biohacker movement are located in California, not far from Silicon Valley, their initiative is often called "garage biotech". Why garage? Of course, because American high-tech originated in the garage, just as all Russian literature of the second half of the nineteenth century came out of Gogol's overcoat!
Hacker Ethics
In most cases, in an environment far from computers, hackers are called high-tech hooligans and criminals who "hack" computer networks for profit or just for sport. In fact, this is not the case; there is a special term for professional "crackers": crackers.
Despite the fact that hackers themselves cannot give a clear definition of their name, the aura of this name draws in our imagination a programmer or an extremely high-level hardware specialist who masterfully owns the subject and thoroughly understands the subtleties and features of computer systems. In a broader sense, a hacker is an expert and enthusiast in any technical or scientific field, highly appreciating non–standard thinking and the ability to gracefully solve complex and atypical tasks.
The hacker subculture has fostered a kind of code of conduct towards each other and a system of values, in which a special place is occupied by a craving for knowledge and the ability to solve the most difficult practical tasks. At the same time, it is customary among hackers to value time and "not reinvent the wheel", sharing their achievements with the community and the whole world in the form of free and/or open source programs.
One of the most famous hackers are Linus Torvalds – the creator of the open Linux kernel – and Richard Stallman – the founder of the concept of free software (open source).
The history of biohackers began with an American graduate student-physicist Rob Carlson, who dramatically changed the field of research after defending his dissertation at Princeton University in 1997. By chance, on the train, he got into conversation with Nobel laureate Sidney Brenner, who invited him to study biology at his own Institute for Molecular Research (Berkeley, California). Mastering molecular biological methods in a team of biologists, physicists and engineers, Rob involuntarily compared the cutting edge of biological research, on which he found himself, with a subculture of patchy hacker enthusiasts, who 25 years before had literally revolutionized the field of personal computers in the neighborhood. He was haunted by the obsession that, perhaps, biotechnology, make it accessible to the masses of amateurs and enthusiasts, will also give rise to a revolution and even a new subculture of "garage biology", especially since most of the equipment (used, of course) can be bought at a significant discount via the Internet.
In his 2005 essay (Splice It Yourself), Carlson develops the idea of amateur science and its fundamental accessibility to independent researchers. In order not to be unfounded, he decided to organize such a laboratory at home. For the purity of the experiment, he did not drag anything from the laboratory, and his first equipment was used micropipettes and a centrifuge bought on eBay. There were unexpectedly many followers of the idea of an independent scientific search – professionals leading their own project at home, and amateurs who took up the pipette for the first time, began to unite in the DIY-bio organization. "Do it yourself", similar to the Soviet "do it yourself"). They buy used and decommissioned laboratory equipment over the Internet, make microscopes out of ten-dollar webcams, and instead of serial thermostats, they use their own armpits to incubate genetically modified bacteria, maintaining a temperature of 37 ° C for free. In some places in the USA, biohackers have created small "collective use centers" where, for a small fee, you can use various equipment without going broke to acquire it into ownership. In addition, there have been similar cases in America before – for example, if a scientist wanted to patent something independently of his company, he indicated in writing a personal garage as the place of all research!
Garage is the cradle of American high–tech and creativity. And although it is difficult to imagine a parking space in Russia in a similar role, we will continue to use this metaphor to designate a utility room in which, if desired, you can build a molecular biological laboratory with your own hands by purchasing everything you need at an online flea market (shipping costs and customs costs are not included). However, enthusiasm should not harm the safety of "housework": it should be remembered that some operations must be performed under a hood, even if such bulky equipment simply cannot be cheap.
Of course, most people are skeptical about the movement of amateur biologists, not allowing the idea that someone at home may need a thermal cycler or a centrifuge. In principle, these doubts are understandable, but the words of one of the bigwigs of the computer world of the late 1970s, Kenneth Olson, come to mind: "I do not know why someone at home might need a computer." Needless to say, 30 years later, his statement is perceived as nothing but a funny aphorism.
And it's true – while it's hardly worth seriously expecting major scientific breakthroughs made by self-taught biologists in their own kitchen: a genius is still more likely to work in a "normal" laboratory, where there are much more opportunities for scientific self-realization in any case. However, another thing is important here first of all – this is a creative confirmation of hacker principles (see inset) in relation to modern biological research, as well as sowing in souls clouded by kilobucks of corporate values, the desire for knowledge and a scientific way of thinking that improves the moral image of a person regardless of a particular profession and occupation.
You can't deny biohackers a fantasy (see Callaway E., The rise of the genome bloggers // Nature 468, 880-881): for example, Meredith Patterson, a programmer from San Francisco, became famous for creating a glow-in-the-dark yogurt by embedding a fluorescent protein into the genome of fermented milk bacteria. Other biohackers are studying their own genome, and even conduct small clinical studies in the hope of finding the roots of some disease. "Genomic blogger" Dienekes stunned one graduate student who published his sequenced genome on the Internet, finding evidence of his Jewish origin in the DNA sequence and posting a report about it. Several groups are trying to create a formula for promising biofuels that would solve the problem of the energy crisis in the future. Finally, a couple more parties develop "open-source" (from the English "open source") laboratory devices, for example, such as PCR machines, making them as cheap and easy to handle as possible, and even publish instructions for self-assembly of these units. All this makes the movement of amateur biologists closer to the people and increases the popularity of this hobby, so unlike the mundane and mercantile hobbies of most people.
OpenPCR: An "open-source" DNA amplifier. Two "garage biohackers" from California – Tito Jankowski and Josh Perfetto – set out to release one of the most common devices in the molecular biology laboratory in the "DIY" format. The main idea was the lowest possible price of the device, consisting mainly of publicly available components: a plywood case, a mini-ATX power supply from a computer, a thermoelectric element, the simplest electronics for connecting to a computer. Manufacturing instructions, according to the ideology of open access to information, are published on the Internet, so with special perseverance, you can even make an analog without buying a DIY kit. By the way, OpenPCR received initial funding through the kickstarter website, popular with biohackers, designed to raise money "all over the world" for all sorts of creative endeavors. The declared amount – $ 6000 – was collected by the project in 10 days, and by the end of the fees, this money, donated by inspired users from all over the world, doubled.
The DIY-bio movement embodies the idea of "open science", implying the free exchange of information, publications, materials, etc., and originates in the 1990s, having spun off from the open source concept related to computer programs. Among biohackers, the so-called synthetic biology is especially popular (about which the "Biomolecule" will somehow tell separately), postulating the possibility of constructing living systems from individual genetic blocks, a list of which is already even posted on the Internet, like the source texts of software. It is worth noting, however, that life does not really like to be designed, so success in this field is still quite modest, and scientists are not yet able to do anything more complicated than the lactose operon: individual "spare parts" are too complicated and nonlinear in characteristics, so that with simple "gluing" they often they refuse to work together. The most significant achievement of synthetic biology today is chemical synthesis (just copying what is already in nature!) the complete genome of the bacterium, but it was not done by a loner in the garage for two kopecks.
Together with the aura of otherworldly futuristic progressivity, open-source biology inherited from synthetic biology and chains of horror before bioterrorism, sometimes presented by the media as the most obvious strategy for using knowledge in the field of constructing life. The idea that hundreds of self-taught biologists are breeding genetically modified bacteria in their rust-ridden garages has become unbearable for the FBI, and since 2009 biohackers in the United States have been taken "on a pencil". Despite the fact that the fears of officials (apparently related to anthrax or something related) today look completely groundless, most biohackers prefer not to contact the security forces and cooperate with them, promising to immediately report "where to go" if the community becomes aware of the launch of really suspicious shadow projects.
...Five years after going underground, Carlson is still convinced that amateur biology can revolutionize. Almost certainly, over the past time, he would have managed to get three times more results if he had not left the laboratory in favor of the garage, and would have received a salary for this instead of investing considerable sums in equipping his own workspace. However, a person's actions are not always controlled by immediate short–term benefits, and in Rob's case, we can already say that his example stirred up the souls of many people who are potentially not indifferent to science, showing them another opportunity to engage in their favorite hobby. And it's not even just about science as such: it's nice to see that many people's hobbies go beyond what is persistently planted from TV screens or magazine pages.
Unfortunately, in Russia, a sincere fascination with the mysteries of nature is not held in high esteem by the masses, and our "hackers" succeed rather in strong human friendship with officials responsible for the distribution of state funding used as a result for projects that are slightly more than entirely composed of fraud and charlatanism. But the state of things cannot always remain the same – so there will come times when skills and knowledge that are invariant to the current state system will be at an incomparably higher price than the strongest ties with the "right people".
When writing the article, the materials of Nature – Ledford H. (2010) were used. Garage biotech: Life hackers
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru10.03.2011