I Genetically Engineered *MYSELF* to Fix Lactose Intolerance
What it is
The Thought Emporium's host describes making and taking a DIY gene therapy to treat his own lactose intolerance. It uses an AAV virus to deliver DNA coding for the lactose-digesting enzyme, made with biohacker Gabriel Licina's help.
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN keeps citing it as the standard example of accessible DIY gene engineering and self-experimentation, in threads on gene therapy, CRISPR and biohacking.
- 8 people recommended it
- 7 different months
- 2 strong recommendations
- first 2018, last 2026
What HN commenters said
“The rest of the channel is pure biohacking gold.”
Channel full of biohacking, with a self-cured lactose intolerance story
Confiks, 2021-07 · Strong recommendation · in “What if biohackers injected themselves with mRNA?”
“Some outstanding videos IMHO”
Outstanding video from a near-hard-science channel
mrtksn, 2023-07 · Strong recommendation · in “Growing Rat Neurons to Play Video Games [video]”
“Check out this guys video on his own gene therapy for lactose intolerance”
Self-experiment with gene therapy for lactose intolerance
rubatuga, 2018-11 · Recommendation · in “A key ingredient for a universal flu vaccine may come from llamas”
“in case you want to hear more about it.”
Describes the whole process of the self-treatment
thatcherc, 2020-01 · Recommendation · in “FDA approves first US phage therapy trial (2019)”
“Thought Emporium has a decent video where he modifies an Adenovirus to inject the lactase gene”
Modifying an adenovirus to deliver the lactase gene
karmicthreat, 2020-09 · Recommendation · in “AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine study put on hold due to suspected adverse reaction”
“Check out this video by The Thought Emporium”
Perspective on how far DIY biology has come
DecoPerson, 2021-03 · Recommendation · in “Moderna mRNA sequence released to GitHub [pdf]”
“About how easy it is to make recombinant insulin I recommend this channel”
Channel showing how easy recombinant insulin is to make
pas, 2021-07 · Recommendation · in “Open Insulin Foundation”
“What got me started was probably this from”
Video that got the commenter into molecular biology
bschne, 2022-01 · Recommendation · in “International Linguistics Olympiad – Sample Problems”
Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.
Topics: gene therapy, biohacking, lactose intolerance, aav, self-experimentation, genetic engineering
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