Talk:CH391L/S13/DIY SyntheticBiology

• Gabriel Wu 16:55, 28 January 2013 (EST): Adoption curves would add a lot in putting DIY Bio in perspective with other well-known technologies.

• Kevin Baldridge 16:57, 28 January 2013 (EST):This article really highlights some of the efforts that are already underway in at-home laboratories.[PopSci DIY Bio]

• Gabriel Wu 17:19, 28 January 2013 (EST): Foldit, RNAfold, and home sequencing are some current apps, but not the "killer" one. What are the other possibilities?
  • *Catherine I. Mortensen 17:37, 30 January 2013 (EST): Foldit is pretty cool! Do you know if they have had any success in finding cures with it?
    • Benjamin Gilman 19:09, 30 January 2013 (EST): They aren't at the stage of cures yet, but a structure generated by Foldit users was close enough to use as a molecular replacement model to solve the crystal structure of a protease monomer from a simian AIDS-causing retrovirus: Crystal structure of a monomeric retroviral protease solved by protein folding game players.

• Catherine I. Mortensen 17:37, 30 January 2013 (EST): I think they're is always dangers with things like DIY.... My friend always plays this strategy game called Plague. The goal is to infect the world with viruses and diseases. It's just a game but the possibilities are out there.
  • Neil R Gottel 18:58, 30 January 2013 (EST):Pandemic is pretty fun, although you're trying to prevent the infections, not spread them :)

• Benjamin Gilman 19:32, 30 January 2013 (EST): We talked about identifying canine perpetrators, but is there another example that anyone knows about where a DIY bio project resulted in an actual product or a significant basic science discovery?

• • Marco D Howard 20:32, 30 January 2013 (EST): This guy is making quantum dot producing cells Quantum Dot Biolaser
    • Benjamin Gilman 12:50, 31 January 2013 (EST): From the description it sounds like they haven't actually made it work at all though. Like a lot of other DIY bio projects, it's an entertaining idea with few if any commercial applications, and it's still at the idea stage. I guess I'm just hoping to find a DIY project that actually resulted in the product or system they wanted.

• Neil R Gottel 19:53, 30 January 2013 (EST): I was scanning the wikipedia page on DIY bio, and saw this: "DIYbio wants to revise the notion that you must be an academic with an advanced degree to make any significant contribution to the biology community." I appreciate this attitude, but is this at all realistic? Contributing to astronomy just requires a telescope, and contributing to open source programs just requires a computer, but the huge investment for a semi-decent bio lab seems to pretty much require that the person doing the experiments have some sort of qualification (now, whether colleges actually do their job in qualifying you is another matter).
  • Neil R Gottel 19:58, 30 January 2013 (EST): Also, just found this article in wired from 5 days ago about a cheap DIY cell-printer. Maybe we need one for our lab...
    • Jeffrey E. Barrick 20:52, 30 January 2013 (EST):Cool! I might want a smaller printhead for bacteria, but this might be a way to "print" a lot of microcultures.

• Marco D Howard 20:06, 30 January 2013 (EST): Here is the video. I was talking about DIY neighbor hood labs. Dr Jorgensen also addresses the ethical side of synthetic biology. Here is the link to her lab Genspace