2022-07-22, 20:40–21:30, Abacus 🧮
Building on the very well attended DNA presentations ("DNA: The Code Of Life") at SHA2017, this talk will cover:
- A brief recap what DNA is and how it works
- It is surprisingly digital!
- How reading DNA is within 'pro-sumer' reach now
- (I might bring a live demo for after the talk)
- An overview of DNA editing technologies (offline, and online: on living organisms)
- Including the famous CRISPR-CAS, but also newer variants
- How does such editing actually work in a lab?
- The surprising lack of a definitive link between most DNA mutations and any effect
- Could you hack your DNA? Will people start doing this?
- Should we try to stop them?
- Wild speculation on what this might mean for the future
The goal of this presentation is to provide real non-hyped information on what DNA editing is and what it might achieve. And since we are hackers, I hope to explain how a hackerspace could start reading DNA right now with USB-powered hardware. And finally, since no hacker can resist tinkering: could you hack your own genome, or your cat's, or improve on your favorite plant?
Building on the very well attended DNA presentations ("DNA: The Code Of Life") at SHA2017, this talk will cover:
- A brief recap what DNA is and how it works
- It is surprisingly digital!
- How reading DNA is within 'pro-sumer' reach now
- (I might bring a live demo for after the talk)
- An overview of DNA editing technologies (offline, and online: on living organisms)
- Including the famous CRISPR-CAS, but also newer variants
- How does such editing actually work in a lab?
- The surprising lack of a definitive link between most DNA mutations and any effect
- Could you hack your DNA? Will people start doing this?
- Should we try to stop them?
- Wild speculation on what this might mean for the future
The goal of this presentation is to provide real non-hyped information on what DNA editing is and what it might achieve. And since we are hackers, I hope to explain how a hackerspace could start reading DNA right now with USB-powered hardware. And finally, since no hacker can resist tinkering: could you hack your own genome, or your cat's, or improve on your favorite plant?
Bert is the founder of PowerDNS, software that powers a significant fraction of the Internet. Bert spent 18 months doing DNA research at TU Delft, leading to a publication in a major science journal. These days, he focuses on open standards, decentralized communications, internet measurements & research (mostly DNA and GNSS).