We are constantly made aware of our rapidly growing technology. You see, news of something astonishing comes around every other day. It used to take many years to discover something, but now, every other day we hear some marvelous discovery or invention which makes us go ‘Woah!’But what if I told you that you could alter your own DNA just like in those Sci-fi movies? Sounds impossible, right? But it now actually might not be.

Josiah Zayner is now the first person to have edited his own DNA using the CRISPR tool. He live-streamed the whole thing, explaining the process and what is expected of the outcome. The former NASA worker, whose firm now sells DIY gene-editing kits, removed Mysotanin, a type of protein that restricts muscle growth, with a gene cutting technology.

Though this type of technology is regulated in the US and the UK, it’s not illegal to alter your own DNA. In his live- stream, he injected a modified copy of his DNA, which excludes myostatin, a jelly-fish’s part of DNA which makes it glow and a bit of a donor’s DNA to help him get relieve his irritable bowel syndrome. During the process, he says, “This the first time in history that we are no longer slaves to our genetics”.

There is a story of another Biohacker, who is planning to insert a genetic mutation which will help humans see on the ultraviolet spectrum. However, Robin Lovell-Badge, a CRISPR researcher based in Francis’s Crick Institute, London cautioned against such alterations which can have detrimental side effects and may have long term consequences. Though, John Harris, a bioethicist at the University of Manchester said, “There’s a long history of scientists experimenting on themselves”.

Zayner added: “I think we could do substantial changes to ourselves right now. You could go a little crazier than scientists have been willing to let on.”

Zayner may initially expect to see extra muscle growth in the arm, but the results of whether the experiment works or not are expected to come around after a month.

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