Crowdfunding Campaign to Fund DIY CRISPR Gene Editing

A DIY enthusiast and postdoctoral researcher from NASA is successfully spearheading a crowdfunding campaign to bring 2015’s hottest gene editing technology the CRISPR to every garage based wet-lab scientist.

Frankly, it was only a matter of time before some biohacker made a CRISPR gene editing kit for DIY research into gene editing, with all the headlines the technology is grabbing nowadays. Dr. Josiah Zayner became the first one to come up with a kit that seeks to provide bacterial and yeast gene editing CRISPR/Cas9 tools to home based amateur scientists.  Zayner also runs an online store called The ODIN, where he sells tools for enthusiastic amateurs to start experimentation on synthetic biology in their homes. He hopes to bring cutting edge science to more interested people, which otherwise is out of reach.

The campaign is currently running on Indiegogo and has reached its goal amount for $10,000, but is still open to more contributors interested in purchasing the kits. The lowest priced CRISPR kit will set one aback by $130. This kit includes but is not limited to a pipette, petri-plates, media, bacterial samples and the rest of the CRISPR reagents and DNA. Adding $30 more will get you a Yeast CRISPR kit with all the above; minus bacteria, plus yeast samples and yeast specific reagents. Essentially these kits give tools and instructions for converting normal bacterial or yeast the power to glow in the dark.

Before the FDA bans and other ethical concerns arise, the CRISPR kits are not equipped to edit human DNA. At best it’s a good educational tool and a quick into to CRISPR and its potential and ease-of-use in genetic engineering. The below video gives additional info about the Indiegogo campaign.

Source: Indiegogo