Biohacking was first termed in 1988 and since then this term is making lot of buzz. Many experts also call it “DO-it-yourself biology” as the individual conduct all the tests on themselves. It is a budding biotechnological social movement which is involving individuals, communities and small organisations, where people are use the basic methods to do their set of research on biology and life sciences.
Seeing the popularity of this process, Molecular Sciences Institute (Berkeley) took up a similar project. The DIYbio organisation was founded in 2008 by Mackenzie Cowell and Jason Bobe. In 2010, the first biological community lab was opened by Genspace. By 2014, almost 50 DIYbio labs have come up all across the globe and functioning smoothly to revolutionise the world of Biohacking.
Types of Biohacking:
Biohacking is an umbrella term and there are 3 popular types available here for better understanding.
1. Nutrigenomics: This type of Biohacking deals with the food components you are consuming and how they are reacting with your genes. You can easily find out food allergies which doesn’t go well with your body. With the help of genome mapping, you can find out which gene of your body respond well to which food component and which doesn’t.
2. DIY biology: As the name implies, that you can Biohack your own system with the pre-conceived knowledge of biology and food. Sometimes, you can figure out on your own, which food component works the best and the worst for you. If you have successfully done it, you can also share the same piece of information with people or community to help others. In this case, you don’t need any lab or experimental environment to Biohack your own system.
3. Grinder: This type of Biohacking considers each part or cell of your body as “hack-able”. The grinders monitor their or the subject’s body with the help of gadgets, injections or implants to find the results. Nowadays, gadgets or implants like, bio magnets, blood test implants, bioluminescence are highly popular in western countries. You can easily implant the device on your body and within intervals it will keep generating results. People living with high blood pressure and diabetes can get immense benefits with these implants.
Some of the Biohacking organisations and labs:
1. Baltimore Underground Science Space (Baltimore, Maryland)
2. Boston Open Science Laboratory (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
3. Counter Culture Labs (Oakland, California)
4. Genspace (Brooklyn, New York)
5. London Biohackspace (London)
6. Victoria Makerspace (Victoria, British Columbia)
7. Biofoundry (Sydney)
8. Bricobio (Montreal, Quebec)
9. Denver Biolabs (Denver, Colorado)
10. La Paillasse (Paris)
If I can speak for myself, I fall under the category of DIY Biology. When I turned vegan in October 2019, I was slightly clueless about the food components to consume for better results. I was a heavy meat, fish, dairy and egg consumer, so I needed sufficient supplement to replace as a vegan. Thankfully, I kept eating and discovering that what works the best for me. Many of my friends spoke against intermittent fasting as it didn’t work for them. But I kept changing my diet and kept discovering what works the best for me during 14 hours of intermittent fasting. You probably don’t need labs and experimental environment to understand your system, but you have to be a deep observer to figure out your body’s responses to food.