‘Stop Stabbing Yourself,’ a Biohacker Tells His Daredevil Peers

With every new technology, there are pioneers and there are renegades. Take the Homebrew Computer Club, which foreshadowed the personal-computer revolution with its own do-it-yourself machines in the 1970s and ’80s. Ever since the science of genome editing promised to make tinkering with biology as easy as rewriting a piece of computer code, DIY types have argued that this cutting-edge medical science should be available to anyone who wants an alternative to exorbitant drug prices—or to modify or enhance their own biology using technology. At conferences and on social networks such as Facebook, these self-styled biohackers have shown a flair for the dramatic. One injected himself with the gene-editing technology Crispr at a synthetic biology conference. Another dosed himself with an untested gene therapy at a conference called BodyHacking Con in an attempt to cure herpes. One man’s DIY effort to cure his HIV resulted in a bad reaction on his midsection, where he stuck the needle.

While the daredevils impressed some in their audiences, they often freaked people out. In July, California passed legislation intended to discourage DIY gene editing, and state regulators have also said they were investigating one biohacker for practicing medicine without a license. Some of the self-taught scientists say that the window to beat the establishment has closed, and now it’s time to join ’em. Speaking at the annual Biohack the Planet conference last month, Gabriel Licina, a chef who once developed his own night vision eyedrops, summed up the mood from the podium: “I would like to propose that we grow up a little bit,” he said. “Please, for the love of God, stop stabbing yourself.”