This article was taken from the March 2012 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
You don't need a high-tech lab to live your dream of being a molecular biologist: biohackers work in bedrooms and kitchens. With a few hundred quid and some kit, you too can play God (albeit with lower organisms -- for now), as Mackenzie Cowell, founder of DIY Bio, explains how.
Buy your kit
You'll need a fridge, a microwave oven, a freezer and some pipettes. You can grow bacteria in Tupperware boxes. Buy the big stuff online: a thermocycler, an incubator, and a pressure-cooker steriliser from a food-canning machine to kill everything afterwards.
Chop the DNA
To amplify and copy DNA, run a polymerase chain reaction in your thermocycler.
You'll need a polymerase enzyme, free-floating DNA nucleotides and purified DNA. To chop and stitch DNA you'll need a restriction enzyme and ligase -- Qiagen does good kits. Check progress with a gel electrophoresis kit. To work with bacteria, you'll need antibiotics.
Go mobile
Cowell has a "suitcase lab" for biohacking on the go. As well as a mini gel electrophoresis kit by Invitrogen, you can cram in a thermocycler, dishes and pipettes. The tricky part is cold storage: "You might need a separate pouch with a cold pack in it," he advises.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
