Amateurs are trying genetic engineering at home

[Liberal_in_LA]

Amateurs are trying genetic engineering at home

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081225/ap_on_sc/do_it_yourself_dna

By MARCUS WOHLSEN, Associated Press Writer Marcus Wohlsen, Associated Press Writer – Thu Dec 25,

SAN FRANCISCO – The Apple computer was invented in a garage. Same with the Google search engine. Now, tinkerers are working at home with the basic building blocks of life itself.

Using homemade lab equipment and the wealth of scientific knowledge available online, these hobbyists are trying to create new life forms through genetic engineering — a field long dominated by Ph.D.s toiling in university and corporate laboratories.

In her San Francisco dining room lab, for example, 31-year-old computer programmer Meredith L. Patterson is trying to develop genetically altered yogurt bacteria that will glow green to signal the presence of melamine, the chemical that turned Chinese-made baby formula and pet food deadly.

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Jim Thomas of ETC Group, a biotechnology watchdog organization, warned that synthetic organisms in the hands of amateurs could escape and cause outbreaks of incurable diseases or unpredictable environmental damage.