The phrase ‘Do It Yourself’ is usually reserved for Pinterest and lifestyle magazines, but biohackers are using the DIY approach to transform the way we think about genetic engineering.

About nine months ago, American biohacking advocate Josiah Zayner became the first person to inject himself with compounds to initiate CRISPR – a gene editing technique that has revolutionised biotechnology due to its high accuracy, speed and low cost.

He attempted to use the technique to delete the gene for myostatin, a protein that inhibits muscle growth. If he were to successfully perform the experiment enough times, he could potentially achieve bigger muscles without having to step inside a gym.

His message: that the process from discovery to application is too slow, while do-it-yourself genetic modification is cheap, easy and accessible now.

“I didn’t view injecting myself with CRISPR as an extreme act when I did it. It was well grounded in science and the safety was well understood,” Zayner told create.

“It might have been a little taboo, but I think in five or 10 years it won’t even be considered weird.”

So what is biohacking?

If Zayner is right and biohacking ourselves will soon be nothing to blink at, it’s worth taking a step back and figuring out what that actually means.

The term ‘biohacking’ has been used to describe three very different practices: nutrigenomics, Grinder biohacking and do-it-yourself biology.

Practitioners of nutrigenomics and Grinder biohacking aim to increase the efficiency and functionality of their bodies, either through improving their diet or modifying their bodies with electronic devices.

However, in this instance ‘biohacking’ refers to a social, DIY movement in biotechnology. Individuals and small organisations are studying biology and genetic engineering using methods previously reserved for universities and traditional research labs.

“To us, biohacking is really returning to the way science used to be practised, but now in a more inclusive manner – not just left to those who are wealthy enough to fund their own home lab,” said Andrew Gray and Jaden Hastings, co-directors of Melbourne’s BioQuisitive biohacker space.

Thanks to the internet, social media, and websites such as eBay and YouTube, biohackers can find everything they need to genetically modify microbes or themselves in their own homes.

Online resources including iGEM’s Registry of Standard Biological Parts, open-access journal PLOS ONE and Zayner’s online store The ODIN, which offers DIY genetic engineering kits for making fluorescent bacteria and yeast, and DNA sequencing services have also been crucial for the growth of biohacking and DIY genetic engineering.

“In the past two years or so, the idea of at-home genetic engineering [has become] more and more mainstream with inexpensive tools available from places like The ODIN,” said Zayner, who also sells DIY CRISPR kits via The ODIN and has even posted a ‘How To’ guide on DIY human genome editing.

What’s driving the movement?

While these approaches sound drastic, Dr Alison McLennan from the University of Canberra suggests the actions of some biohackers are being driven by a lack of research investment.

“Some of these people are doing research themselves because they feel nobody else is going to look into certain diseases or problems, or nobody’s going to look into doing things in a lower-cost way for patients,” said McLennan, whose thesis focused on synthetic biology regulation.

“The system rewards research that is publishable and that someone is willing to invest in – that’s the reality.”

A biohacking project that epitomises these concerns is the Open Insulin project, which is a global movement to make insulin cheaper and more widely accessible by developing the first open-source protocol for insulin production.

In 2015 a small team of biohackers from San Francisco (including Zayner) took to experiment.com to crowdfund the project. Their fundraising goal was $6000, but by the end of 2015 they’d raised $16,656. Today, the project has expanded to include biohackers from Australia, Europe and Africa.

“There’s definitely a view in the DIY community that the more people looking into problems and trying to figure them out, the better that is for everyone in terms of better and faster innovation,” McLennan said.

This is reflected in the ethos of biohacking, which is all about democratising science: making it accessible, cheap, and transparent; encouraging curiosity and creativity; and the open sharing of resources, knowledge and skills.