Re: [DIYbio] Re: Were the DIY CRISPR kits contaminated?

Hello Nathan,

Maybe there is a misunderstanding going on or we didn't make it clear enough in the post.
The samples analyzed were independently collected from the german authorities. We're talking of two different samples. Actually three, because the bavarian LGL claimed to have analyzed two samples.
Wolfgang Nellen also mentioned that to his knowledge other samples were tested.
In all cases there seemed to be a contamination.

Of course one could argue that the "cold chain" got broken in every single case. IMHO, unlikely that it happened independently many times, but for the sake of the argument, let's assume that some kind of improper storage it is what happened:
even so, maybe there should be a note in the user manual about it, maybe kits should be delivered at cold temperature, maybe the bacteria should be kept in an "air-tight" vial, maybe there could be an "expiry date", maybe there could be an internal control helping the user to know if the kit is still usable...
These are all solution that IMHO could help improving the kit. Not necessarily that kit, but any kit that might include bacteria.

This is the type of discussion that I would wish to see. Instead of turning the face the other way, dismissing the claims, or even suggesting some kind of hidden agenda, let's use this incident to learn and make this stuff better. Because in the end, you might still experiment with those kits in US, but don't forget that's us in Germany (and possibly Europe) that don't have those tools available.

On Friday, 22 December 2017 23:39:51 UTC+1, Nathan McCorkle wrote:

On Fri, Dec 22, 2017 at 12:28 AM, Patrik D'haeseleer <pat...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Thursday, December 21, 2017 at 2:20:55 PM UTC-8, Nathan McCorkle wrote:

I am surprised this has got any more attention, given the lack of response the EU biohackers have provided here on this mailing list. It gives the impression that EU biohackers are not interested in collaboration, and are making noise for some self-serving goals. This behavior only makes me wary of EU biohackers. Very sad.

Hi Nathan. I have to admit I don't really understand this comment. What behavior are you objecting to here? 

Patrik

There's no conversation going on here... and it seems like shoddy and misleading work.

If hamburgers were illegal to eat in the EU, and I mailed a hamburger to some food-hacker there... and they cut open the gamma-sterilized vacuum-sealed bag I sent it in, but only smelled it... so they wouldn't break the law. Then months later the hamburger-police show up demanding that now-rotten hamburger, take it to their lab and test it, only to declare "we couldn't find any beef DNA, only flesh-eating bacteria, thus there must have never been any beef at all and only flesh eating bacteria". Then these food-hackers decide they want to double-check the hamburger-police's lab work... so they do their own DNA test on the rotten-hamburger, to discover the same horrific results!

Let me tell you... I would have ordered a fresh hamburger for any re-testing of hamburgers pre and post rotting. Of course if there is hamburger flesh, flesh-eating bacteria will gladly show up and start eating away/ Of course these bacteria will release nucleases, and other reactive waste products that will destroy any detectable trace of beef evidence.

I don't know what's going on here... but something is shady.