Recently, British doctors successfully eliminated an infant girl's cancer, Chinese researchers created ultra-muscular goats and dogs, and scientists in California made malaria-resistant mosquitos. Much of this aggressive expansion into genetic engineering research can be attributed to the CRISPR gene-editing tool that has made tweaking an organism's DNA cheaper and more precise than ever before.

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have now invented a gene-editing device that will fit nicely on your desk or workbench. The Biorealize Microbial Design Studio can genetically modify microbe genomes and cultivate the resulting organism. Proteins produced by the modified microbes can then be extracted from the machine. Some scientists hope that this kind of technology can ultimately be scaled up to mass-produce chemicals—anything from food to fuel to medicine.

The wheel in the middle of the Microbial Design Studio contains four syringes that hold your little experiments. The syringes rotate through a series of positions in the machine. The microbes are first electrocuted with more than 200 volts, which makes them more responsive to newly added strains of DNA. After the new DNA is injected into the microbes, they remain in the syringes for an incubation period. During incubation, the microbes produce proteins that can be harvested on the other end.

The machine, still a prototype, can carrying out eight experiments simultaneously. The minimal amount of required human interaction makes contamination unlikely and will help researchers perform experiments more efficiently.

The Microbial Design Studio will first be distributed to laboratories, but eventually hobbyists should be able to get one for a few thousand dollars. The creators want it to be readily available—stacked high in labs (yes, you can stack multiple stuido) and on hundreds of home desks, maximizing the possibilities for scientific breakthroughs.

Source: University of Pennsylvania via Popular Science

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