[Hplusroadmap] Cheap bioreactor mostly for the construction of further bioreactors

[Antonio Marcos]

> So that's good news, killing (or giving life to?) a few birds with one stone.

hahahahaha

>I'd like to hear some ideas.

I guess you could be more specific, your email had plenty of material..
I like the neurotransmitter farm idea, thats ought to be useful, generate the motivation
needed for further research. thats a fundamental need.

[]
Mark.


--- Em qui, 29/5/08, Bryan Bishop <kanzure at gmail.com> escreveu:
De: Bryan Bishop <kanzure at gmail.com>
Assunto: [Hplusroadmap] Cheap bioreactor mostly for the construction of further bioreactors
Para: diybio at googlegroups.com, "Transhumanist Technical Roadmap" <hplusroadmap at heybryan.org>
Data: Quinta-feira, 29 de Maio de 2008, 19:25

Hi all,

You might know about
	http://biohack.sf.net/
And one of the biggest problems with a simple collection of notes and 
documents is mainly that you can't really do anything with it except 
read, which is fine, if you have the time, but it's just not "up to 
date" and it never can be due to the intense amount of effort that it 
would take to make sure you have everything covered, that a rewritten 
and new version is scientifically accurate, etc.

So, simultaneously, there are other 'problems' in diy tech. A few days 
ago I was going through some neurosci papers on GABAergic and ACh 
circuits in the prefrontal and visual cortices:
	http://heybryan.org/mediawiki/index.php/Sustained_attention
To do experimentation on biopsied organotypical neuron slices would 
require the neurochemicals. And if you go look up on Sigma-Aldrich, the 
neurotransmitters, agonists, antagonists and related substances are 
prohibitively expensive. $1/mg. That's ridiculous. We *know* that we 
can have bacteria/algal bioreactor tanks that will produce it for free.

So let's do it.

http://heybryan.org/mediawiki/index.php/Neurochem_kit
http://heybryan.org/mediawiki/index.php/Bioreactors
^ this last page is where I'm centralizing most of the notes. But please 
excuse the current state of the page, it's mostly just a link to an IRC 
log, and at the moment I fail to recall the other documents on the wiki 
that are of relevant note.

The idea is to build a biroeactor tank out of scrap parts. There are 
lots of problems to be solved like contamination, piping, purification 
of substances, cloning and making new versions for friends (or 
yourself), reprogramming the ecoli farms, etc. But I'm certain it can 
work, and once it's able to produce the reactants for PCR and the 
chemicals necessary to do oligonucleotide synthesis in the DNA 
synthesizer, it's basically self-supporting except for the metals that 
would be required to make a new bioreactor over all. That's pretty good 
results, if it ever gets that far.

And on top of that, if you're incorporating an entire DNA synthesizer 
(which is really just a giant, over-sized inkjet printer that uses 
phosphodiesters if I recall correctly), you can connect it to a cheap 
PIC or microcontroller and download genes from the internet, perhaps 
from GenBank or Entrez or something, get new biobricks, incorporate 
synthesis reaction pathways from other species (i.e., integrate 
dopmaine synthesis). 

There are other possible uses of a biotan. Tissue engineering, biofuels, 
organ farms, the PETA in vitro meat prize, which I happen to have notes 
on here:
	http://heybryan.org/mediawiki/index.php/Meat_on_a_stick
It could also be used in neural tissue experimentation, longevity 
experiments, but as a first step ecoli or algal farming is excellent.

I'm still outlining the overall protocols that could be used, but I'm 
optimal so far. The main problem seems to be the tens of thousands of 
RPMs in common protocols for using plasmids. Purification of 
synthesized neurotransmitters would /normally/ be painful because I 
frankly have no ideas on synthesizing filtration membranes, however an 
interesting alternative is to use aptamers:
	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aptamers
.. which have the added bonus of having a synthesis largely dependent on 
a DNA synthesizer in the first place. So that's good news, killing (or 
giving life to?) a few birds with one stone.

What's needed:
	* cheap, but effective protocols (as 'biologically-dependent' as 
possible) for cloning, cultures, subcloning, PCR, expression 
experiments, and selection experiments (ampicillin, etc.)
	* ideas on the physical setup of the bioreactor, i.e. how to do piping 
with glassware, PVC pipes, or catching produced materials via simple 
things like balloons tied to faucets, etc.
	* the DNA synthesizer - http://bioinformatics.org/pogo/
	* eventually some server space where we can store all of this 
information as a git repository. I'd offer my server space, but I'm 
quickly approaching zero available space, although the cheap 12 cents 
per GB announced on some websites today has me scouting for the $64 500 
GB steals. So that might change soon. :)


- Bryan
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