30
CAREER ADVICE
with with it other factors like stress, weight or exercise also affects how a body contributes to food. How about switching up the nutrition in an appropriate way to obtain the optimal results where an individual can reach the potential recognized by his genetic makeup. Biohacking allows it by incorporating self-experimentation to an extent where one can explore the different ways by which nutrients affect the thinking and behavior. Thus Nutrigenomics can assist humans to live a healthier life. Decreasing risk of getting depression, extra weight or chances of diseases besides optimizing blood pressure or gut bacteria comes under biohacking domain. How it is done? Biohacking can contribute by constructing the products which assist the natural biological function by steering the biochemical effects of oxidative stress leading into aging. Upregulating the genes to produce antioxidants, prevent organelle deterioration like mitochondria or enhance the gut ability to fight bacteria can be inculcated into the biohacking. Explore Nutrition habits! Changing sugar habits, consuming more healthy fats or non-starchy foods, figuring out the elimination diet for self-comprises the biohacking. Ensuring daily diet consists of less processed food and more of water can be included as part of Biohacking the body. How much you sleep?
sponse to the economy as well. Initiated by Rob Carlson, a physics Ph.D. student in 1996, DIY bio is an extensively intensifying socio-technological movement which offers opportunities to biohackers to study and experiment the biological processes by following the protocols suggested by professionals which remain usually online. According to reported data in US alone DIY bio spaces are over fifty in number having approximately 30,000 biohackers and other like-minded individuals to present their unprecedented ideas. How safe is to play with biology? Biohacking opens up the safety concerns for the society like bioethics should be taken into consideration while it is being performed. Modified organisms through different ways may leave bioethics in question where few indignant groups of people may exploit the open-source nature of biohacking to develop biological weapons. Few Environmental organizations are also opposing DIY. Absolutely innovation and economic growth offered by DIY should be aligned by the safety of Biohacking to prevent the wrong consequences to turn up. Though biohacking can show novel aspects in the health and medicine, a critical eye should be placed on the precarious outcomes of biohacking as it may involve shoving the body to adapt to new limits or utilizing chemical and technological augmentations to which body may respond in an unsafe manner.
Tuning your sleep hours and pat- Certainly, DIY bio or Nutrigenomterns can be part of biohacking. The ics offers a glimpse of positive trends, body can be bio hacked by veering that every individual has the ability feeding habits. to bring the best out of biology and empowers the world with the hope of Get closer to nature! reflecting enhancements in day to day life. If you are counting doing yoga or exercise under the daily routine re- Qualifications: gime, try it doing in the lap of nature as it has proven to boost the potentials It is quite obvious that Biohacking than doing inside the closed rooms or and its applications have very much backyards. fascinated you by now, and you must be feeling enthusiastic to obtain or DIY Biology: Cultivating Innova- generate a biohack. Have a little pations tience as most of the universities or institutes yet do not have Biohacking It is a kind of biohacking displayed as one of the courses. Then, how to be by people experienced in scientific a Biohacker? It is basically an emergfields. These people suggest various ing technique, so one of the best opways to assist non – experts or hobby- tions is to self-learn after getting asists to conduct self – experiments out sociated with the researchers already of the regular experimental domains involved in this process. There exists in labs, garages, closets or kitchens a lot of academies and online courses This has come up with advanced life which may be of your help. science solutions and exhibiting re-
October 15th, 2019 Vol. 03 NO 100
BioHack Academy: Here, one can design, build, use and share his own bio lab. Each edition connects passionate groups around the world. They have several partners from technologically sound countries viz. USA, South Korea, Japan, and Amsterdam. Like the one from Amsterdam provides a 10-week course, after completing which one is capable to grow his own fuel, food, filaments, pharmaceuticals, fragrances, fungi and much more funky bio stuff at home. They emphasize on motivating and teaching on how to join the bio revolution. Biohacking can make you a researcher owning a lab using a local maker space or Fablaband working with theoretically anything viz. microorganisms, 3D design, digital fabrication, programming, electronics, bio-pigments, bio-textiles, etc. People: Try to look for a community of people with shared interests via seminars, workshops, classes. E.g. Biosummit that has been designed specifically for DIYbio. Easily available inputs: Kits, guides, research papers, media, podcasts (The Quantified Body), books, blogs (Tim Ferriss – the 4-Hour Work Week), etc. Career Options Biohackers can get opportunities in the form of Freelance projects. This is especially a good option for all those young minds who have a lot of ideas but no laboratory or guidance to explore. Biohacking requires minimum interference from a senior and gives you the option to be involved in active research, without looking for already existing support data. As far as market jobs are concerned since the field is still growing, we can not find quite a lot of jobs until it gets more mainstream. However, jobs can be found in startups or companies specifically designed for biohacking. One such position which is regularly offered by this market is being a Trainee – Content Marketing. This not only gives you exposure but also stimulates your neural cells to look for ideas for your own startups and become an entrepreneur. Along with a fixed salary, you are also offered a share in equity and profits. Since the field is still emerging, a lot of ideas have not been tried yet and hence left in your plate.
fluential role in the development of the MinION, the world’s smallest, most portable and soon-to-be most important genome sequencing platform. Their plan is to create a world where even school children can sequence different species as a part of their curriculum and get direct scientific attribution. This will not only give a sense of responsibility but also keeps the scope for improving the gene pool. Human Body Designers: Yes you heard it right. Human Body Designer will be someone who can combine bioengineering with design skills. This will solve the problem of human organ trafficking. It will also create a better version of cosmetic surgeries. They aim at creating the organ from a patient’s own cells, leaving behind the little risk of immune rejection. Zoologists will be able to manage the reintegration of a species into the wild and judge any ecological impacts of the species’ behavior and survival. Designing the proteins Biohacking is also working on lifestyle. So, it is believed to have a positive impact on human health as well. Personal microbiome generation is also under study and is hopeful to give an idea to cultivate person-specific microbiota in his own body. To push the boundaries of our modern world towards improvement and to bridge the gap between humans and computers, the art and science of biohacking are expanding. It is predictable that technology will inculcate inside the humans apart from around them. So although extending human life beyond a limit is inexorable, enjoying longevity is possible. Biohacking the lifespan can be an entrancing option to biohackers or who should better be known as Bio enthusiasts. Whether it is about discovering and implanting the contact lenses with cameras or language translator earbuds or making more advancement in the IVF technologies by making insights into the embryos without professional and expensive labs biohackers can bring in innovations but safety should not be kept on risk. It’s radical to believe in holding the ownership and have the admittance and ability to rebalance the power with an affirmative approach.
“Without change, there is no innovation, creativity or incentive for ImBiohacking is providing a platform provement “ not only to become an independent researcher but also finding unusual With appropriate and updated regroutes to create job opportunities. Let ulation over synthetic biology and considering bioethics at every levus take a few examples: el biohacking can offer wonders to Earlham Institute has played an in- transform the society through revolutionary ways. Future/Job Prospects: