DIY Crispr: biohacking your own genome
With do-it-yourself Crispr kits now available online. Is it really possible to edit your own DNA, is it safe and how should it be regulated?
In October, biohacker Josiah Zayner gave a lecture in San Francisco in which he claimed to be the first person known to have edited his own DNA using CRISPR technology. He insists it’s something anyone can do using one of his company’s gene engineering kits. But does this do-it-yourself approach have any evidence to back it up? Is it safe? And, ultimately, does this kind of self-experimentation drive science forward or expose the public to unacceptable risks?