Josiah Zeiner, a former National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) biochemist and biohacker, spoke about the consequences of an experiment in which he injected the myostatin gene into his body using CRISPR technology. This is reported by The Guardian.
According to the biochemist, he wanted to demonstrate that DNA modification equipment is inexpensive and easy to use, even for those with no specialized knowledge. The man decided to increase the muscle mass in his left arm and introduced an additional copy of the myostatin gene, which is responsible for muscle growth.
He is sure that after the procedure, the genome has changed in some of the cells. Since the introduced gene is well studied, the effect of its introduction should be noticeable. Now Zeiner is working on ways to test which cells the gene has inserted into, and to what extent it affected muscle growth.
Zeiner has become a prominent figure in the culture of biohackers, who do genetic modification at home and try to improve their own body with modern technology. He sells kits that allow his own experiments to create transgenic organisms. At the same time, Zeiner and other biohackers ignore warnings from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that the sale of transgenes without the approval of the relevant authorities is illegal.