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 For more than half a decade I've suffered from lactose intolerance. If I consumed even the smallest amounts of lactose I'd be violently ill within the hour. So as I was choosing my university I vowed that one day I'd fix it.

Recently my friend Gabriel Licina, renowned biohacker and genetic engineer, gave me access to the tools and materials I needed to make a therapy that could potentially fix the issue. The therapy uses a virus called an AAV to deliver DNA that codes for the enzyme that breaks down lactose. When packaged into a pill and ingested, the virus should induce my intestine to produce lactase, effectively restoring lactose tolerance.  

This project was based on research done by other scientists and I've included links to all the papers below. I've also included links to all of the places I got the viral DNA kits from. The other reagents and media were all purchased from the thermofisher catalogue.   I'm also working on a writeup of this procedure and will hopefully publish a paper on the results once I've collected more data.

I know that so far my sample size is still only N=1 but my life has changed from this project and I wanted to share my progress. I'm not going to make any claims about the project other than my life seems to have improved.   This is for educational purposes only. Do not attempt anything you see, unless you are an experienced biologist.  

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Developing a Permanent Treatment for Lactose Intolerance Using Gene Therapy

For more than half a decade I've suffered from lactose intolerance. If I consumed even the smallest amounts of lactose I'd be violently ill within the hour. So as I was choosing my university I vowed that one day I'd fix it. Recently my friend Gabriel Licina, renowned biohacker and genetic engineer, gave me access to the tools and materials I needed to make a therapy that could potentially fix the issue. The therapy uses a virus called an AAV to deliver DNA that codes for the enzyme that breaks down lactose. When packaged into a pill and ingested, the virus should induce my intestine to produce lactase, effectively restoring lactose tolerance. This project was based on research done by other scientists and I've included links to all the papers below. I've also included links to all of the places I got the viral DNA kits from. The other reagents and media were all purchased from the thermofisher catalogue. I'm also working on a writeup of this procedure and will hopefully publish a paper on the results once I've collected more data. I know that so far my sample size is still only N=1 but my life has changed from this project and I wanted to share my progress. I'm not going to make any claims about the project other than my life seems to have improved. This is for educational purposes only. Do not attempt anything you see, unless you are an experienced biologist. __________________________________________________________________ Resources: Original paper: http://sci-hub.la/10.1038/2625 pAAVLacz Plasmid: https://www.cellbiolabs.com/paav-lacz-control-plasmid AAV kit: https://www.cellbiolabs.com/aav-2-cmv-expression-system __________________________________________________________________ Interested in some sweet science themed designs for your wardrobe or wall? Click the link below to see all the great items currently being offered: https://www.redbubble.com/people/chironex?asc=u __________________________________________________________________ Want to support the show and my research? Check out my patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/thethoughtemporium __________________________________________________________________ My Social Media Pages: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thethoughtemporium/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thethoughtemporium/ Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/TTEchironex Website: http://thethoughtemporium.com/ __________________________________________________________________ As always, thanks to my awesome Patrons for helping to make these video possible. Thanks to: -Terry Fuller -Jason Dunham -Anita Fowler -Jonas Abreu -cataract bumblesnatch

Comments

Jasper

Your "life seems to have improved" seems a little vague, do you seem to have more tolerance for lactose? (Also, couldn't help but think "what could possibly go wrong") Edit: should've watched first >

Jasper

Lot of questions.. so this way mammals got that bacterial DNA... for the first time? Could this combine with some other mutation/gene to have some side effect? Does it affect all cells? Or is it just that the RNA physically doesn't reach outside the intestines much? All cells with the gene would produce lactase? Could it affect sperm/egg cells making it transferrable to children?

thethoughtemporium

I'm not pooping my brain out daily and am not in pain anymore. I can eat copious amount of milk and cheese now. That's what I meant by my life has improved. This can't just combine with thing per say. There's a risk of it merging with my Dan in the wrong place and causing an issue but there's been no evidence of that happening in the literature. It'll mostly affect the cells of my stomach but could've gone elsewhere. Any cell it ends up in will start producing lactase. But lactase is harmless so that's OK. It is very unlikely to affect germ line cells so it shouldn't transfer between generations

Daniel Mallett

I really love what you've done here, you said you would be doing further research, if you need volunteers my gf's digestive track volunteers, sometimes loudly. Lol