transitlab

One of the great things about making the maker faire in Uk each year was catching up with Joris Peels. He speaks his mind, and this is refreshing. Formetrly of Shapeways (and not sure what hes hatching now), we have had a few discussions about what would be usefull for DIYBio.

Basically, how do we DIYBios make this a legitimate pastime, or pursuit, or calling. I welcome some regulation, but can currently see, that by not running a business, regulations do not necessarily apply, as most are dedicated to regulating WORKPLACE not homes.

At the moment I can’t see any regulations that apply, as we are not working with genetically modified organsisms, and keeping to type 1 (harmless) organisms. It does get interesting when people want to do GE in the garage. Next year the Biological agents and Genetically modified Organisms(Contained use) 2011 regulation comes into to force. This may impact on the iGem teams if they are working with organism new to the labs they are working in.

The problem with this hole in regulation I see, is basically, if not regulated to an extent, DIYBio may become illegal due to biosafety concerns.

A brief set of rules that I am working by

1) don’t bring persistant poisons into the house, look for the safest way of doing something, not the fastest. This is not much different to what is done with electronics in the house. If you want to etch using the ferric chloride way, you are left with a persistent poison. There are alternatives (http://hackaday.com/2008/07/28/how-to-etch-a-single-sided-pcb/)

MSDS tells you what poisons are, and their actions. there are many things in the laboratory that are incompatable with home labs. Ethidium Bromide comes to mind, its used to stain DNA, but now there are much safer alternatives. They may seem more expensive, but when you take into account waste disposal, i’d say they are much cheaper.

2) dont work with pathogens, its not worth it.

It does supprise me when people want to culture pathogens without the proper safety equiptment and risk analysis. There are so many other things to explore, like fermentation of beer, making yogurt, sourdough making, cheese making, that are all much more worthy of study and tasty.

3) cleaning hands before and after handling microbes. I have used bathrooms as a easy DIYBio lab for culturing glowing bacteria from seafood (see http://letters.cunningprojects.com/?p=97)

4) minimise waste, think about using slightly more expensive glassware than disposable plasticware

5) have a decontamination strategy, bleach and rinse

6) be very carefull about mixing strong chemicals, many are not compatible. (I would like to get a list of these)

DIY Bio.