CRISPR cannabis

PhenoMenal

Well-Known Member
CRISPR {mandatory prelude} is the amazing breakthrough gene-editing technology that is all the rage in the science community at the moment -- I won't go into what it's about because there's enough info out there already and most people here would've already heard about it. If you've never heard of it, basically it's like "cut-and-paste" for DNA to make gene 'corrections'

Anyway an article at NewScientist a couple days ago stunned me, entitled "Biohackers are using CRISPR on their DNA and we can’t stop it" [link].

I was already aware how CRISPR was CHEAP and ACCESSIBLE, but the article talks about Josiah Zayner, a young biochemist who used to work at NASA, who looks like he could fit into any new-age hacker film, just last month became the first human known to edit his own genes with CRISPR. Whacky yes, but seems legit.

But it was the first time the CRISPR revolution made me think to the early days of computer viruses, where young coders would write viruses/worms simply for the challenge and thrill of it - but they didn't require anything specialised other than a computer ... but wow, it seems CRISPR really is on its way to becoming that accessible! Clearly not as accessible as being able to write a software program, but it's amazing how accessible it is considering it's allowing people to edit "DNA programs".

A quick google of this guy takes you to his corporate website where he's selling CRISPR tools like E. Choli strains, plasmids, kits for bioluminescent yeast etc etc ... most of it for < $300.

Anyway it just made me realise ... cannabis might soon have biohackers coming out with new strains, just as amateur programmers write new viruses -- and I'm not talking from Monsanto, i'm talking from the kid next door!

Example rationale: Why grow out thousands of plants to find a high-CBD one, when you can just insert or enable the genes contributing that turbocharge CBD?


I'm not saying it's good or bad!!! (Probably both!) But this was a WHOA wakeup call for me, and .... wow .... if we can write/hack DNA like we can write/hack software ... it's gonna be another rollercoaster ride i think! :)
 
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vostok

Well-Known Member
We knew this day was coming

I had hoped that these Bio guys would work on cleaning up them broken chromosomes in human DNA first

nice find
 

PhenoMenal

Well-Known Member
some software programmers write software to analyse medical scans... other programmers write viruses. I guess biohacking is no different, just a different language!
 
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