4 ms·

In the future, I'm hoping some of the dreams of synthetic biology come true (basically, decentralization of biotech). I work on that problem in close collabora

by koeng 7y ago

In the future, I'm hoping some of the dreams of synthetic biology come true (basically, decentralization of biotech). I work on that problem in close collaboration with a lot of community lab spaces, and it is surprising how many have the capacity and knowledge to implement rapid testing in their local communities and the inability to do so because of regulation. Biotech, if you run proper controls, isn't actually that hard. A lot of those spaces are now seriously struggling because of the shut down. The main thing that is stupid about how the FDA is approving tests is that they approve protocols, even though they have lots of controls for input->output. Coming from a computer science side, I'd imagine they'd so something along the lines of unit tests, but they aren't - they're still regulating how the protocol is done itself.

cma 7y ago
By injecting the coronavirus rna strand into a cell in culture, anyone could make it in their garage if synth bio dreams come true. You’d have to hope countermeasures advance faster but that’s hard to prove.
- koeng 7y ago
  Sure, or you could just go swab sick people and keep it in storage for a while. More people want to build than destroy IMO. If we tested in the synbio dream, this outbreak would have never happened in the first place.
Reelin 7y ago
This is amazing! I used to do academic research, and I had _no idea_ that community biotech labs existed! https://crosscut.com/2019/03/seattles-only-community-lab-puts-diy-spin-biotech https://crosscut.com/2019/03/seattles-only-community-lab-put... That article mentions the cost of equipment. In academia, we used to semi-seriously discuss building our own stuff. We generally didn't because even basic engineering, fabrication, and firmware require a lot of time and effort. (We were occasionally forced to when we needed something extremely specialized that simply wasn't available off the shelf.) It seems like open source equipment designs don't exist largely because they don't usually make sense for academia or industry to fund. I wonder if that approach might be viable for this type of endeavor, since it would allow designs to be shared between groups and would lower the cash barrier to that of the raw materials? I'm not sure how you'd navigate the patent minefield, but if successful I think it would benefit society at large.
- koeng 7y ago
  Open source equipment has been tried a lot in the DIY bio space, but a lot of it falls short because the used market is too good in biotech IMO Lots of medical and academic labs liquidate, and you'd think that the market would compensate and labs would pick up used equipment, but that typically doesn't happen - probably for regulatory reasons and because (I've found) academic labs aren't typically in the position to take risks on equipment. For example, an eBay seller ain't going to be able to test a PCR machine, so they sell it FOR-PARTS, which makes it so academic labs won't touch it. Then, you can swing in and buy perfectly fine $2,000 equipment for $150. Best deal I ever got was $350 for a fully functioning lab robot. The SoundBio people are great, and there's lots of labs locally! They're really suffering right now though, because a revenue stream is often education.

by koeng 7y ago

cma 7y ago

By injecting the coronavirus rna strand into a cell in culture, anyone could make it in their garage if synth bio dreams come true. You’d have to hope countermeasures advance faster but that’s hard to prove.

koeng 7y ago
Sure, or you could just go swab sick people and keep it in storage for a while. More people want to build than destroy IMO. If we tested in the synbio dream, this outbreak would have never happened in the first place.

Reelin 7y ago

This is amazing! I used to do academic research, and I had _no idea_ that community biotech labs existed! https://crosscut.com/2019/03/seattles-only-community-lab-puts-diy-spin-biotech https://crosscut.com/2019/03/seattles-only-community-lab-put... That article mentions the cost of equipment. In academia, we used to semi-seriously discuss building our own stuff. We generally didn't because even basic engineering, fabrication, and firmware require a lot of time and effort. (We were occasionally forced to when we needed something extremely specialized that simply wasn't available off the shelf.) It seems like open source equipment designs don't exist largely because they don't usually make sense for academia or industry to fund. I wonder if that approach might be viable for this type of endeavor, since it would allow designs to be shared between groups and would lower the cash barrier to that of the raw materials? I'm not sure how you'd navigate the patent minefield, but if successful I think it would benefit society at large.

koeng 7y ago
Open source equipment has been tried a lot in the DIY bio space, but a lot of it falls short because the used market is too good in biotech IMO Lots of medical and academic labs liquidate, and you'd think that the market would compensate and labs would pick up used equipment, but that typically doesn't happen - probably for regulatory reasons and because (I've found) academic labs aren't typically in the position to take risks on equipment. For example, an eBay seller ain't going to be able to test a PCR machine, so they sell it FOR-PARTS, which makes it so academic labs won't touch it. Then, you can swing in and buy perfectly fine $2,000 equipment for $150. Best deal I ever got was $350 for a fully functioning lab robot. The SoundBio people are great, and there's lots of labs locally! They're really suffering right now though, because a revenue stream is often education.