But just because it is not a good idea, somebody is going to try it if
tech becomes easier and cheaper. Prevention is nice, but strictly
followed has to kill every DIYBio idea. Chemists have limited the
supply of chemicals, but bombs are build anyway. What about making a
lot of biobricks easy available but somehow limit/control the service
of synthesis companies/machines?
On 24 Jan., 11:27, Cathal Garvey <cathalgar...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'd have said that the main problem combining DIYbio and vaccines was
> the risk of creating a novel, dangerously infectious virus if someone's
> idea of "attenuated" isn't quite up to scratch!
> This was a theme at the DIYbio London Congress where we threshed out a
> "DIYbio Code": Really, working with infectious organisms at home is a
> seriously bad idea, and shouldn't be allowed to share the "DIYbio"
> umbrella-title, lest we all suffer massive regulatory backlash for
> someone's overambitious mistakes.
>
> Leading to my personal opinion; making medicines at home is pretty OK
> provided they aren't extremely toxic, but making artificially attenuated
> vaccines is dangerous business. A home lab is *always* prone to the
> kid-next-door barging in, and Chekhov's law will always win out; if
> there's a gun on the wall, it'll be fired before the play's over. :)
>
> On 24/01/12 09:16, Pieter wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > Great to hear that there will be a synbio conference again in The
> > Netherlands. The DIYbio movement here could definately use some
> > support. So if you are able to break any ground for us, just let me
> > know.
>
> > There are quite a few DIY Bio projects going on involving healthcare,
> > but as far as I know they do not incorporate the SynBio approach.
> > Problem with combining DIY Bio and medicine is the validation part.
> > Although it might sound relatively easy to produce antigens in cell
> > lines, almost the entire flu vaccine industry still runs on the same
> > old chicken egg method that was validated decades ago. In Holland
> > there is a MDCK cell line vaccine facility in Weesp, but it is
> > relatively small in size. In such a competitive industry as flu
> > vaccines, it is hardly worthwhile to invest in these kind of new
> > production methods.
>
> > On Jan 24, 3:05 am, Thomas Landrain <thomas.landr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Hey Cathal!
>
> >> Thanks a lot for your input, I am definitely going to use it. Very cool project BTW. Your work is paving the amateur's roads to SynBio, and that's what counts!
> >> I'll definitely share the finalized document with community, it should come shortly in fact, the deadline is next Wednesday ;)
> >> Cheers!
>
> >> Thomas
>
> >> PS: You're more than welcome in Paris! Actually, we should maybe start to think of a "DIYbio Europe Congress 2012", Paris could host that! ;)
>
> >> On Jan 23, 2012, at 12:37 PM, Cathal Garvey wrote:
>
> >>> Hey Thomas!
> >>> Delighted to hear La Pailasse is growing so successfully. Can't wait for
> >>> my next excuse to visit Paris!
>
> >>> My own projects at this very moment have no especial significance to
> >>> medicine, but I'd like to leverage them if they succeed into the realm
> >>> of decentralised medication production.
>
> >>> Specifically, I'm still working on my synthetic Bacillus plasmid. Chief
> >>> barriers until now have included a lack of positive control plasmids for
> >>> Bacilli, which I've now sorted out, and a few outstanding paperwork jobs
> >>> I need to do for legal reasons before starting.
>
> >>> If the plasmid works, I'll be offering it for sale as open-source DNA
> >>> for DIY Synthetic Biology; it's biobrick compatible and hopefully it
> >>> will not need antibiotic selection to work.
>
> >>> What *I'd* like to do with it first though is to immediately attempt
> >>> producing a useful medicine; thyroxine, for example, or an antibiotic. I
> >>> wrote at modest length about the potential for production of thyroxine
> >>> using Bacillus subtilis on my blog:
> >>>http://www.indiebiotech.com/?p=135
>
> >>> The prices of attempting this have since fallen significantly provided
> >>> one is willing to do a little in-lab assembly, as IDT are now offering
> >>> 500bp blocks of DNA for $99 each; cost per nucleotide drops to $0.20/bp
> >>> at that rate, although allowing for overlaps for assembly the effective
> >>> cost-per-bp is slightly higher.
>
> >>> Vaccines are something that synthetic biology has *tremendous* power to
> >>> deliver in short order, but it's not an area that would be prudent or
> >>> safe for DIYbio-scale engineering. Far better to cut teeth at the DIYbio
> >>> level, then found or work within an existing BL3/4 lab to do work with
> >>> more dangerous systems.
>
> >>> Still, although it's not "DIYbio", the production of a new flu vaccine
> >>> could be rapidly accomplished through synthetic biology by creating
> >>> complementary strains of host cell lines in which to grow artificially
> >>> crippled viruses. A cell line that produces viruses containing "almost
> >>> dud" genomes, just enough to stimulate infected cells to produce and
> >>> display viral proteins via MHC, would stimulate every natural level of
> >>> immunity, both innate and adaptive, without any reasonable risk of
> >>> back-mutation. That we're not already producing vaccines in this way is
> >>> pretty headache-inducing to me.
>
> >>> Finally, the "medical" benefits of access to lifestyle-altering drugs
> >>> such as contraceptives shouldn't be overlooked, either. If strains of
> >>> bacteria can be coaxed to make (non-environmentally persistent) forms of
> >>> oestrogen or progesterone that could be used for contraception, the
> >>> provision of cheap and reliable synbio contraceptives could go a long
> >>> way towards improving global healthcare.
>
> >>> And that's before you start discussing symbiotic, sub-dermal cultures of
> >>> hormone-producing bacteria; freckles that help keep you infertile until
> >>> you want to conceive!
>
> >>> Looking forward to the report from La Paillasse. Keep up the awesome work!
>
> >>> On 22/01/12 00:45, Thomas Landrain wrote:
> >>>> Hey DIYbio enthusiasts,
>
> >>>> While most of you don't know me, I will represent the DIYbio
> >>>> community for an international workshop organized by the SYBHEL
> >>>> project (European program) called "Synthetic Biology for Global
> >>>> Health: A policy discussion". It will be held in The Hague
> >>>> (Netherlands) on the 9th and 10th of February. Jason Bobe was
> >>>> originally invited but he asked me to replace him. For those that
> >>>> don't know me, my name is Thomas Landrain and I am co-founder and
> >>>> president of the first french community lab for biotech in France
> >>>> called "La Paillasse". Our french community is growing bigger at a
> >>>> constant pace, our microbiology/Molecular Biology Lab was installed
> >>>> few weeks ago and we are getting quite excited about the on-going
> >>>> projects we have. But, this is not my main job, everyday in fact I am
> >>>> designing new tools for Synthetic Biology based on RNA-RNA
> >>>> interactions as a PhD student. But I'll stop here for the
> >>>> presentation and will now focus on the real purpose of my email.
>
> >>>> Although I am not a regular contributor to this list, I'd like to
> >>>> request your help on gathering information concerning our broad
> >>>> community and the diverse realized/on-going/planned/wished realistic
> >>>> DIYbio projects, involving a Synthetic Biology approach, that could
> >>>> provide solutions to (global) health issues. I would like in fact to
> >>>> compile all those projects together into a document that would
> >>>> strengthen the positive perspectives of using SynBio in a
> >>>> non-institutional environment like DIYbio labs. You are all welcomed
> >>>> to contribute! Thanks in advance for your dear help!
>
> >>>> Thomas
>
> >>> --
> >>>www.indiebiotech.com
> >>> twitter.com/onetruecathal
> >>> joindiaspora.com/u/cathalgarvey
> >>> PGP Public Key:http://bit.ly/CathalGKey
>
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> --www.indiebiotech.com
> twitter.com/onetruecathal
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