The future Bill Gates of biotech could be developing a cure for cancer in the garage

Co-founder Mackenzie Cowell, a 24-year-old who majored in biology in college, said amateurs will probably pursue serious work such as new vaccines and super-efficient biofuels, but they might also try, for example, to use squid genes to create tattoos that glow.

Cowell said such unfettered creativity could produce important discoveries.

"We should try to make science more sexy and more fun and more like a game," he said.

Patterson, the computer programmer, wants to insert the gene for fluorescence into yogurt bacteria, applying techniques developed in the 1970s.

She learned about genetic engineering by reading scientific papers and getting tips from online forums. She ordered jellyfish DNA for a green fluorescent protein from a biological supply company for less than $100. And she built her own lab equipment, including a gel electrophoresis chamber, or DNA analyzer, which she constructed for less than $25, versus more than $200 for a low-end off-the-shelf model.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081226/ap_on_sc/do_it_yourself_dna;_ylt=AheceKf9jEvcphP8sC76hA.s0NUE

Putting your tweak to productive ends.

That glow in the dark yogurt has a future in the world of energy savings. We could eliminate refrigerator light bulbs with that.

wrote:

glow green to signal the presence of melamine, the chemical that turned Chinese-made baby formula and pet food deadly.

If your yogurt was emitting enuff green to negate a light bulb, you got problems.