Governance of DIYbio
DIY CRISPR KIT
sold online and
can be purchased randomly
Odin Company: “Want to really know what this whole CRISPR thing is about? Why it could revolutionize genetic engineering? This kit includes everything you need to make precision genome edits in bacteria at home including Cas9, tracrRNA, crRNA and Template DNA template.”
Due to the flourishing of DIY bio recent years, one can buy gene-editing kit randomly online without any restrictions. Their activities might result in a series of unpredictable hazards, such as bio hackers might take advantage of it. DIYbio is required under the supervision.
DIYbio Registered Network
Set up a network to regulate and censor the qualification of the DIYbio individuals & groups who require to obtain bio-editable materials or kits.
Design & Requirements
The establishment of Diybio regulatory network requires support and allocations from government, workshop places and staff support from local communities and schools; donations, equipment & materials from bio companies, donations from various foundations; support from bio-experienced individuals and organizations, as well as biologists and biology major students, etc.
Assumptions & Risks
It may overreact towards the risks of DIYbio activities and will definitely affect the core profit of those bio companies like Odin. Setting up DIYbio supervision mechanism will limit the opportunities for bio-fans to get in touch with bio-editing materials and technology, which may hurt the enthusiasm of bio-lovers and is not conducive to open science practices.
Not all the countries or regions would join the Diybio governance network- some countries and regions may not accept the regulatory mechanism in order to seek greater economic benefits, so it may also breed more illegal black market transactions.
Different from others, in the field of gene editing, open-source and lowering access conditions to the public may not able to bring much progress to the development of science and technology. However, once it’s controlled by criminals or terrorists, the public will be exposed to a great danger so that the establishment of the DIYbio governance mechanism is very important and necessary.