“Resistence is fertile”: this was the title of my final project’s midterm presentation. Surprised by the complete lack of empathy for the seedling sent to the backside of the moon by China’s Chang’e 4 lander, perishing there from cold a few hours after it sprouted ….
…. as opposed to the commotion there was in the 50s about the stray dog Laika, sent into orbit around Earth by the Russians and dying from heat and stress in Spoetnik 2 in less than 7 hours ….
… I wanted to take a closer look into the distance humans apparantly perceive between themselves and other biological agents. Since “having brains” seemed to be a key factor for that perceived distance and hence for the level of empathy towards those other biological agents, I thought showing “brain-like” activity in thought-off “brainless” entities - like for instance iceberg lettuce - perhaps could change the perceived distance and make people feel more related to for instance iceberg lettuce ….
… that, visually, already shows a remarkable resemblance to the human brain:
A common way of measuring brain activity being to make an EEG, my plan was to hook up iceberg lettuce to an EEG device and compare potential difference under changing test conditions (neutral environment – sound of cutting iceberg lettuce – video of someone eating iceberg lettuce), comparable to doing EEG experiments with humans.
There were still some experimental design issues to be solved, but having built EEG-based BCI systems before, I was sure I would know how to do this and presented my Resistence is fertile project at midterm:
And then, while presenting it, I realized I indeed already knew how to do this! That was not why I joined Biohack Academy! Lucky for me Roland sympathized with my plan to completely change subject, so what follows is my Final Project version 2.0.
Final Project version 2.0: Inger’s Kitchen Sink Lab
Project description:
Inger’s Kitchen Sink Lab consists of a prototypical kitchen sink bio lab for both biological experiments and - in parallel - the development of ideas about the technical, legal and ethical questions involved in biological experiments (including genetically modification of the human genome), reformulated as “Kan ik het”, “Mag ik het” and “Wil ik het”.
Context:
While the WHO and other national and international organizations are discussing standards for governance of intervention on the human genome, November 2018 Dr. He Jiankui (Shenzhen, China), claimed to have made the first genetically modified people, using CRISPR Cas9 to genetically modify the genome.
March 2017 COGEM, the Dutch committee that provides scientific advice to the government on the risks to human health and the environment of the production and use of GMOs and informs the government of ethical and societal issues linked to genetic modification, published “Ingrijpen in het DNA van de mens”.
Triggered by Dr. He’s announcement, January 2019 COGEM updated this publication, stating that the discussion has been accelerated and expressing concerns about the technical, legal and ethical questions that are associated with genetically modification of the human genome.
Being a human being myself, I consider the subject too important to leave it to COGEM, de Gezondheidsraad, WHO or other organizations to come up with answers. My modus operandi being that I build and do to find out and explore, I decided to start doing my own research about the blessings and dangers of genetically modification of genomes in general and the human one in particular, by building a prototypical Kitchen Sink Bio Lab (aka the IKS Lab, short for Inger’s Kitchen Sink Lab) and start experimenting while in parallel developing ideas about the technical, legal and ethical questions involved, reformulated as “Kan ik het”, “Mag ik het” and “Wil ik het”, using the IKS Lab grid as a canvas:
Practical Set-up of the Kitchen Sink Lab
Tuesday, 26th of March 2019 I claimed a space at Wetlab Waag in Amsterdam to grow my Kitchen Sink Bio Lab in. In the weeks before, I built several devices as per the BHA device repository, amongst which the Magnetic Stirrer, (the electronics part of) the Incubator and the Centrifuge that were the first objects I placed in the IKS Lab space.
“The Making Of” these devices and recommendations for future builders will later be documented here. To keep track of what was needed in a Kitchen Sink lab apart from the devices I built myself, I decided that nothing could enter the IKS Lab space that was not owned by me or “borrowed” from Wetlab and then photographed/ otherwise documented (for instance by printing out purchase options) for future reference. Sticking to that rule, in the days that followed and while doing 2 experiments (see Experiments) my IKS Lab grew step by step:
Experiments
To find out what the possibilities would be of such a kitchen sink lab and what limitations I would have/ barriers I would encounter, I intended to do 2 experiments: the Mystery Meat Experiment
we did in class 5 and the Crispr Cas 9 e.coli experiment as per the The Odin’s DIY Bacterial Gene Engineering CRISPR Cas9 kit .
I choose the first experiment because being a hardcore vegetarian I really would like my Kitchen Sink Lab to be equiped for PCR tests to find out whether or not the vegetarian bamischijf at Smullers contains meat traces of the frikandel fried in the same oil a minute before.
The same for the HEMA vegetarian sauzijzenbroodje, in store stored next to the non-vegetarian version of it, both HEMA’s vegetarian saucijzenbroodje and Smullers vegetarian bamischijf being frequently consumed by me on my way home from Waag Amsterdam these days.
I also choose this experiment because a lot of lab procedures and lab skills are involved that I wanted to practise. Most important take-away from this part of the project: apart from the BHA DIY devices like the magnetic stirrer, lots of other equipment (balance, vortexer, microwave), consumables (primers, DNA loading dye, agarose) and small lab items (erlenmeyers, safety goggles, pipettes) are needed for a functional biolab. More importantly: it might be that some chemicals are too dangerous to be used in a kitchen sink lab (in this case: SYBR safe to colour the agarose gel is really toxic!).
Interpretation of the test result: it looks like there was no meat (= no traces of DNA of the meat supplying animals included in the master mix) in lane 2 and 4, being the lanes for the two vegetarian snacks from Smullers and HEMA.
Conclusion: from a vegetarian perspective these snacks seem to be “safe” to eat. From a health perspective I guess it might be wise though to limit consumption of these snacks!
For the second experiment I ordered The Odin’s DIY Bacterial Gene Engineering CRISPR Cas9 kit . Knowing that there is strict European regulation about genetic editing of organisms, prohibiting to do the CRISPR Cas9 e.coli experiment in Waag’s Wetlab, my particular interest here was to find out exactly which actions in the protocol are not permitted, why these are not permitted and how this is controlled (possibly leading to minor disobedient behaviour in the IKS Lab once it would be up and running), all aimed at getting to know more about genetics, genetic manipulation, genetic manipulation on the human germline and “standards for governance of intervention on the human genome”.
After I received the package for the CRISPR Cas9 e.coli experiment (not opened by customs; see Gate Keepers) I took it to my prototypical Kitchen Sink Lab at Waag, opened the package, and did everything that in the manual was labeled as Preparation, all steps being legal and allowed according to both Waag’s safety officer Per Staugaard and our Biohack instructor Roland:
- Make LB agar plates
- Streak out e. coli bacteria onto LB Agar plate
- Put the plates in an incubator for the bacteria to grow (easiest to just let it sit overnight)
About the next section in the manual (“DNA transformation and CRISPR experiment”) both Per and Roland told me EU regulation prohibits to perform step 5 (the “heatshock”) in Waag’s Wetlab.
I intend to find out more about those EU regulations, national gratifications and the reasoning behind it in the next few months and to report here on my findings.
For the moment my way of involving more people in the subject matter consists of building the ISK Lab, doing experiments, telling people about it during the exhibition of the BHA6 Final projects on April 2nd 2019 and at that occasion ask people to think about the choices I have with regards to the CRISPR Cas9 experiment and vote:
Gate keepers?
Citizens are supposed to know the law and in general when something is forbidden by law there is a kind of control system in place to enforce the law. For instance: kids younger than 18 are not allowed to buy alcohol. People selling alcohol are the gate keepers and have an obligation to ask for proof of being 18+ when selling alcohol to youngsters.
As far as doing biological experiments I found out there basically are no gate keepers when ordering from the US. Although the DIY Bacterial Gene Engineering CRISPR Cas9 kit I ordered from The Odin was held in customs for some time, this was only (typical Dutch!) to calculate how much VAT I had to pay. Without any notice the kit itself was just dropped off at a pickup point in a second hand store a few blocks away when I was not at home. I am not sure what to think about this.
When ordering lab materials from Dutch companies there seems to be a gate keeper system in place though: for the DIY gelbox (needed for PCR experiments) I tried to order a platinum wire from Sigma-Aldrich. I couldn’t do so because I did not pass the new-customer screening (delivery address being a home address and when I tried to order through my company: my company not being registered as a life sciences lab).
Then again, ordering from the US was no problem: I ordered a gelbox including platinum wire from iRodeo and a few days later it was handed over to my 87-year old neighbour who had not a clue what it was and for days forgot to tell me he had taken delivery of it. I am not sure what to think about this either!
Update: the votes are in!
The votes are in and counted! Results:
- I think she will not do it and I also think she shouldn’t do it: 0x
- I think she will not do it, but I think she just caan do i: 2x
- I think she will do it. but I think she shouldn’t do it: 11x
- I think she will do it and I think she can just do it: 14x (amongst which one signed by GOD).
Also one person noted she thinks I already did and one person added I should do it safely. Which - in case I decide to do it - I surely will do. I will keep you posted!