My First Gene Splicer™®©
The FDA has recently issued a statement on home gene splicing. Namely that you probably shouldn’t do it. Or, you know, they’ll throw the book at you if they catch you.
This follows hot on the heels of a home gene therapy experiment conducted by a 27-year-old involving HIV. Specifically, an experiment meant to immunize against HIV, cooked up by his biohacker friends. Which, if we’re being honest, probably just gave the guy HIV/AIDS.
The issue the FDA has is that these kits are being developed for self-administration, flouting the safety rules set up for such experimentation.
FDA is aware that gene therapy products intended for self-administration and ‘do it yourself’ kits to produce gene therapies for self-administration are being made available to the public. The sale of these products is against the law. FDA is concerned about the safety risks involved.
Consumers are cautioned to make sure that any gene therapy they are considering has either been approved by FDA or is being studied under appropriate regulatory oversight.
In a nutshell, since there’s no telling what can actually happen outside of a proper safety environment, they want companies to stop selling kits. There is, after all, a reason they don’t let you build a nuclear reactor in your back yard. The possibility of things getting wildly out of control is fairly real.
Source: Gizmodo
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