西亚试剂： Artist Georg Tremmel, a research fellow in biological-data

Artist Georg Tremmel, a research fellow in biological-data visualization at the University of Tokyo, has clear plans for CRISPR. He and his collaborators plan to ‘de-engineer’ genetically modified blue carnations sold in Japan by snipping out the inserted gene that turns the flower blue, thus reverting it to its ‘natural’, white state. They want audiences to ponder whether these doubly modified carnations should be deemed any different from unengineered plants with essentially the same genome.

So far, the hardest part of the project has not been using CRISPR, but growing the carnations in cell culture, Tremmel says. Another challenge will be getting permission to exhibit the work: although the blue carnations have been approved for sale in Japan, the de-engineered white carnations may need regulatory approval before they can be taken out of a laboratory.

In addition to its creative possibilities, CRISPR also poses potential for mischief. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Bioterrorism Protection Team has painstakingly forged relationships with the biohacker community over the past few years and regularly reminds its members to keep an eye out for suspicious activity. Those concerns may be unnecessary, says Todd Kuiken, who studies science policy at the Wilson Center, a think tank in Washington DC. Most biohackers have benign goals, he says, such as creating rainbow-coloured bacteria or brewing distinctive beer.

There is also a tendency to overestimate what a typical DIY biologist can do, Kuiken adds. Reagents such as enzymes and antibodies are expensive, molecular-biology experiments are time-consuming and equipment that professional scientists take for granted is often beyond the means of individuals or community labs. And most community labs insist that their members work only with organisms that require the lowest level of biosafety precautions, which leaves human cells and most pathogens off the menu. In some parts of Europe, genetic engineering is illegal outside of professional facilities.

Given the constraints of a DIY lab, many hobbyists resort to CRISPR only when they need an extremely precise change to the genome, says Keoni Gandall, a 16-year-old biohacker and science-fair champion from Huntington Beach, California, who has been working with polymerase chain reaction machines and centrifuges at home for about three years. So far, Gandall has used CRISPR only while volunteering in a local university lab. “It’s pretty good,” he says.

One of the biggest fears surrounding CRISPR is that it could be used to create a genetic modification designed to spread through a population of organisms at an unnaturally fast rate. But Dan Wright, an environmental lawyer and DIY biohacker in Los Angeles, California, thinks that such a scenario is still beyond the ability of most amateurs. Constructing such a system would surpass the relatively simple tweaks that he and his colleagues are contemplating.

“It’s too difficult,” Wright says. “Just knocking out a gene in one plant is enough of a challenge for a biohacker space at this point.”

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