Self genetic engineering

[u/Minimum-Fisherman143]

Hello, someone here has experimented biohacking through self genetic engineering?

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[u/DepressedDynamo]

It's not currently feasible.

Plus, it's much easier to engineer offspring than it is retroactively alter the genes of every cell in an adult organism's body. You may have a much easier time trying to modify the expression of genes in an adult without actually editing the genetic code, but much more research needs to be done in this area before we can think of biohacking at home.

[u/ModernMage0 → u/DepressedDynamo]

Bro said the unpopular truth and then got downvoted lol
What was the line about comforting lies?
Honestly people, look at current obstacles and, rather than ignoring reality, surpass reality to build it anew.

[u/astreigh → u/DepressedDynamo]

It is getting closer though. They are trying to engineer viruses that can alter dna. But somehow I think there's a wonderful zombie apocalypse movie in that concept

[u/HDSpiele → u/DepressedDynamo]

Well you can order custom viruses for about 2000 USD if you send them your own code the big problem is you also need immuno supressents Wich you can't get over the counter you also need to inject them and it is 2000USD per injection so if you know something that only needs one injection and you are wealthy you can do it.

[u/ZorbaTHut]

To the best of my knowledge, this has happened exactly once, when someone successfully bioengineered a CRISPR lactose-tolerance gene into themselves. So it's not completely impossible.

But, again, exactly once.

I would not personally recommend trying this.

[u/flarn2006 → u/ZorbaTHut]

Why hasn't it become more popular as a result of this?

[u/ZorbaTHut → u/flarn2006]

I think most people are understandably kind of skeptical about injecting homedesigned genetic alterations into themselves.

[u/lostfairychangeling → u/ZorbaTHut]

id imagine it's also expensive

[u/ZorbaTHut → u/lostfairychangeling]

Surprisingly, not so much, it's only a few thousand to get it synthesized.

The hard part is, of course, designing it.

[u/koispr]

This is absolutely possible. very few people are willing to go through with it because ideally you would want to do animal testing first and not many people have access to do that research.

If you are willing to do it blind it would only cost you a couple thousand dollars. determine what gene you want to express, what promoter to use, and your delivery method. you will likely end up deciding a viral capsid is best. the two real options are AAV and lentivirus. AAV gets your payload as a seperate strand of dna inside the nucleus. there are different modified versions that target some types of cells better than others. Lentivirus gets your dna directly into the host chromosome. This has the advantage of copying when the cell divides. Very permenant.

Then go sketch up your plasmid in benchling, order your sequences, gibson assembley, clone it with bacteria most likely. Extract, then pay a lab to do packaging into your virus and clone that. they filter it and send it back to you.

Chances are with no institution behind you a lab won't work with some random person. If thats the case you will need to do transfection and cell culturing yourself, which is pretty involved. DIY bioreactor.

[u/lostfairychangeling]

not sure if this counts as editing my genes but i am transgender and take HRT and that does dramatically change the way my body operates, so it is a form of transhumanism. my alcohol tolerance went down (cheaper to get drunk, wooo), i am more sensitive to cold (not so great), i see colours more vibrantly, i think and feel emotions differently, i am more perceptive of small behavioural shifts in others, almost like a psychic sense, i have lower physical energy, lower appetite, building/maintaining muscle is significantly harder now, and i suddenly crave pickles more

[u/PoofyGummy]

While much more safe and ethical than GM crops and offspring engineering, this is still a decade or two away i think. Humans are less resilient and more complex than yeast and basic plants people experiment with in home labs. And unfortunately the moronic bioethicists have made doing human genetic modification all but illegal everywhere by either literally prohibiting germline modification or rolling insane administrative and "ethics committee" hurdles in front of genetic engineering projects.