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Assumes interest and some biology. Education, not medical advice.
640K views8 years ago8 recommendations
Gut and digestionBiohacking and self-trackingGenetics and genomicsDigestion and gut disordersSelf-experiments
A biohacker designs and ingests an adeno-associated virus carrying the lactase gene to cure his own lactose intolerance.
For more than half a decade I've suffered from lactose intolerance. If I consumed even the smallest amounts of lactose I'd be violently ill within the hour. So as I was choosing my university I vowed that one day I'd fix it. Recently my friend Gabriel Licina, renowned biohacker and genetic engineer, gave me access to the tools and materials I needed to make a therapy that could potentially fix the issue. The therapy uses a virus called an AAV to deliver DNA that codes for the enzyme that breaks down lactose. When packaged into a pill and ingested, the virus should induce my intestine to produce lactase, effectively restoring lactose tolerance. This project was based on research done by other scientists and I've included links to all the papers below. I've also included links to all of the places I got the viral DNA kits from. The other reagents and media were all purchased from the thermofisher catalogue. I'm also working on a writeup of this procedure and will hopefully publish a paper on the results once I've collected more data. I know that so far my sample size is still only N=1 but my life has changed from this project and I wanted to share my progress. I'm not going to make any claims about the project other than my life seems to have improved. This is for educational purposes only. Do not attempt anything you see, unless you are an experienced biologist. __________________________________________________________________ Resources: Original paper: sci-hub.se/10.1038/2625 pAAVLacz Plasmid: cellbiolabs.com/paav-lacz-control-plasmid AAV kit: cellbiolabs.com/aav-2-cmv-expression-system ____________________________________________________________________ Support the show and future projects: Patreon: patreon.com/thethoughtemporium Nebula: go.nebula.tv/thethoughtemporium Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/thoughtemporium Become a member: youtube.com/channel/UCV5vCi3jPJdURZwAOO_FNfQ/join Store: thethoughtemporium.ca/ ______________________________________________________ Our Social Media Pages: Tiktok: tiktok.com/@thethoughtemporium Instagram: instagram.com/thethoughtemporium/ Facebook: facebook.com/thethoughtemporium/ Twitter: twitter.com/emporiumthought Website: thethoughtemporium.com/ _____________________________________________________What people say. Highly recommended as a fascinating, hands-on demonstration of DIY gene therapy and biohacking.
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