[DIYbio] Re: I want to Biohack! Thing is I just completed high school(A levels)

Hey Azra,

I'm recent to the whole premise of biohacking as well. I came as an artist with a background in education and engineering... all things bio were completely foreign to me.

I don't imagine that there is much of a hacker community in kenya, and honestly that is how I feel I have been able to learn so quickly. I'm in the San Francisco bay area and there are 3 hacker spaces which makes for lots of support... regardless I think the key is finding the support either (preferably) near or as part of the online community.

but more importantly I think its all about your motivation factor and the project you choose. I've been working over a year on a project regarding phytoremediation and water decontamination and keep interested because its one of those things that just effects everyone. From my experience, the best way to get into it is to choose a real world problem you are passionate about solving, and keep researching until you find viable biotech solutions through the arts of brainstorming and research. Once you work your way through the problem from a mental standpoint and become more familiarized with processes, you read protocols and get an idea for what it takes, email professors in the area, people with phds, or anyone near you working on similar projects and offer help to get the hands on experience that applies to your idea or concept. make contacts with people who, maybe aren't doing exactly what you want to do, but the tools are nearly ubiquitous (to my very basic understanding) and the important part is getting experience doing the work in any capacity.

after 9 months of being a lab slave, I've done quite a few plant and bacterial transformations, am starting to understand coding, started plasmid engineering, and now know the tools to start projects of my own.

Be a lab slave to anyone open to the idea. soak up their knowledge and expertise. mentorships are the way to go!

Thats my advice. Pick an idea, find someone who needs help on their project, and develop your own experiments as you get an idea for the flow!

On Monday, June 29, 2015 at 3:34:50 PM UTC-7, Azra Abdi wrote:

I want to do biomedical engineering and this whole biohack thing is just what I was looking for. Thing is I just finished high school, I can afford some of the equipment using cash from my part time job but my problem is that  you all seem to be degree holders and know what you're doing, so was hoping someone could help me get started. There are no biohackers that I know of here in kenya and was thinking of involving a classmate of mine to help.

Thanks