Biohacker Josiah Zayner is under investigation

In 2017, Josiah Zayner injected CRISPR gene editing technology at a conference on biotechnology, live from the experience. It was the most prominent waterfall for the biohacking celebrity, who had developed a fierceness among other biohackers – people who experiment on their own bodies outside of traditional laboratories in hopes of improving their physical performance. and cognitive.

Some of his followers became his clients. Zayner runs a company called The Odin in his garage in Oakland, Calif., Selling biohacking ranging from $ 20 DNA to a $ 1,489 make-up genetic kit.

It now seems that his stunts have caught up with him: he is under investigation, accused of practicing medicine without a license. In a letter from May 8, published by Zayner on social media, health officials from the California Department of Consumer Affairs asked him to come and discuss a lawsuit against him and bring in a lawyer. he wished it.

This is a sign that the law is beginning to count with biohacking, a group of activities for which there is still no clear regulation, but which could be dangerous if the amateurs try to follow Zayner's initiative. to tinker with their genes at home.

This is not a far risk. Leading practitioners like Twitter's chief executive, Jack Dorsey, are making biohacking an increasingly popular way of life. The underlying philosophy is that we do not have to accept the weaknesses of our bodies: we can work their way through them using a range of high and low technology solutions. While some of the "hacks" are probably benign, such as Dorsey's inclination to drink "salt juice" every morning, others are untested experiments that could cause harm.

Biohacking, explained

Biohackers talk about optimizing and modernizing their minds and bodies, and they have many ways to do it. Some are techniques that people have used for free for centuries, such as Vipassana meditation and intermittent fasting.

Then there is cryotherapy (getting cold), neurofeedback (training to regulate your brain waves), saunas in the near infrared (supposed to help you escape the stress of electromagnetic transmissions) and tanks to virtual floats (intended to induce a meditative state) by sensory deprivation). Some people spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on these treatments.

They can also purchase portable devices to track their sleep patterns or implants to monitor their subcutaneous glucose levels. The more data you have about the mechanical functions of your body, the more you can optimize the machine that looks like you, or at least you think so.

Some biohakers think that by using technology they will be able to live longer, but stay younger, or even completely avoid death. Millionaire Serge Faguet, who plans to live forever, said, "The people here [in Silicon Valley] have a technical mind, so they see everything as a technical problem. Many people who do not have a technical mindset think, "Hey, people have been dying forever," but I think once the results begin to be felt, we'll be more aware. "

Josiah Zayner explained

At first glance, Zayner stands out as a catchy stuntman. His accomplishments include relocating stool in a hotel room (he invited a journalist to document the procedure) and trying to genetically alter his own skin color (he documented this effort on his blog) .

But he also has a solid scientific background. He holds a Ph.D. in biophysics and previously worked in synthetic biology at NASA.

In 2015, he early left his association with NASA because he was, in his words, "tired of the system" and the slow pace of scientists who were just "sitting on their asses".

Zayner has also been frustrated for a long time with what he sees as the slow pace with which the Food and Drug Administration administers all sorts of treatments. The development and approval of a new drug in the United States can take 10 years. For people with serious health problems, wait times can be extremely long. This is partly why Zayner wants to give people the opportunity to experiment with themselves.

He seemed upset to learn that he was the subject of an investigation, as would probably everyone else incurring up to three years in prison and one year in prison. $ 10,000 fine. He tweeted: "I need a lawyer with restraint. People are accusing me of all kinds of crazy shit. "On Instagram, he wrote:" WTF !!!! … The problem is that so many people die, not because of me, but because the FDA and the government refuse to allow them to access advanced treatments or even, in some cases , to basic health care. Yet I am the one who is threatened with prison. "

He added that he "never gave anyone to inject or use, never sold material intended to treat a disease and never claimed to provide treatments or remedies".

The indignant tone of the biohacker contradicts some of his past statements. In an interview with the Atlantic last year, he expressed regret for being publicly injected with CRISPR, which he acknowledged was an act intended to provoke. He seemed troubled by his own celebrity: after the CRISPR incident, a cult of personality had developed around him, which he had described as "uncontrollable". And he was worried out loud about what the biohackers would do next:

Honestly, I blame myself a little. … What it has become now, people see it as a way to get press, advertise and become famous. And people will be hurt. There is no doubt in my mind that someone will end up being hurt. Everyone is trying to reinforce each other.

Zayner acknowledged that some people are contacting his company "for the sole purpose of buying us products to inject" and stated that he discouraged them from doing so. But since he himself has streamed and sold the DIY CRISPR kits needed for others to do the same, his words of deterrence may not make much sense to customers.

He issued a note of conscience on this subject, saying that "that's why I feel responsible for this shit." However, he asked if he would stop selling CRISPR kits. He answered no.

In his recent posting on Instagram, his feeling of being wronged ("WTF !!!!") was quickly followed by a different feeling: "I knew that day would come".

This is not the first time he has problems. In 2016, he had trouble with the FDA, which opposed the sale of kits to brew glow-in-the-dark beer. And after being injected CRISPR, the FDA issued a notice stating that the sale of gene editing kits to use oneself was prohibited. Zayner ignored the warning and continued to sell his goods.

Now that the state officials have intervened to investigate, they will have their work cut out. Existing regulations have not been designed to make sense of something like biohacking, which in some cases goes beyond the limits of what it means to be a human being. As biohackers travel this unexplored territory, it will be fascinating to see how the law struggles to catch up.

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