How To Genetically Modify Yogurt To Produce Prozac

Amanda L. Chan
Updated

By Christina Agapakis
(Click here for the original article)

Tuur van Balengives a provocative how-to presentation at theNext NaturePower Show, showing how to use the Synthetic BiologyParts Registryto engineer yogurt bacteria to produce prozac:

Van Balen is a designer whose work explores the boundary between art and science in synthetic biology. From hiswebsite:

Tuur Van Balen (Belgium, 1981) uses design to explore the political implications of emerging technologies. Through designing and experimenting with new interactions, he constructs thought-provoking new realities. Both the process of creating these objects, interventions and narratives as the resulting physical presence aim to confuse, question and confront different publics with the possible (and impossible) roles of technologies in our everyday lives.

I couldn’t find BioBricks in the Parts Registry for the production of prozac, but you can learn more about engineering the yogurt bacteriaLactobacillusto produce new colors and flavors from the2007 Edinburgh iGEM teamand making your own incubator and other lab supplies from the2010 ArtScience Bangalore iGEM team. More about Van Balen’s other projects can be found onhis website, includingPigeon d’Or, which imagines using BioBricks that produce grease-digestinglipasesto engineer bacteria that live in the pigeon digestive tract, turning this urban pest into a helpful city cleaning system.

While getting DNA into a (well-studied, culturable) bacterial cell might beeasier than you think, the task of designing and optimizing a functional, useful, and safe gene system is a lot more complicated, providing both the excitement and challenge of synthetic biology. Work at the interface of design and synthetic biology can ask important questions about how new technologies are created, used, applied, and sold, helping us figure out what isgooddesign.

(viaCathal Garvey, viaMassively Networked)

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.