The Thought Emporium's update on the home-brewed gene therapy he took to cure his lactose intolerance. It reports how the effect held up over two years and what future versions might look like.
Why Hacker News points people here: Pointed to as a striking example of DIY biology and self-experimentation with gene therapy.
“His YouTube channel The Thought Emporium, is amazing.”HN comment, 2021
“His YouTube channel The Thought Emporium, is amazing.”
Update on lactose tolerance gene edit results.
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His YouTube channel The Thought Emporium, is amazing. He just moved into a new lab and I really appreciate what he’s working on and how he communicates it. The robot painting fluorescent proteins is neat and recently he dropped a video demonstrating his adventures making synthetic opal. Apparently the edit made him totally lactose tolerant for over a year and now he has very mild lactose intolerance. He says he hasn’t redosed because he wants to improve the plasmid (I think that’s the right term, BUGFIX probably isn’t right) before he takes another run at it. Here’s his update video from last year on that endeavor. this video
Recommendsfreezing_coffeeJul 2020
“Great addition to scientific youtube.”
Update on DIY lactose gene therapy.
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Have been a patron for some time, and discovered his channel with his lactose gene therapy video - to which he recently posted an update: this video . Great addition to scientific youtube.
RecommendsjcimsDec 2020
“If you want to see someone do cool stuff with the above”
Someone doing cool home biology work.
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With a germ you can kill a few million people - linklinklinklink If you want to see someone do cool stuff with the above: this videolink
Cites ithaxiomicJul 2020
“it worked, very well in fact!”
Self-experiment with DIY lactose intolerance cure.
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We have this today to an extent, here’s someone who tested a DIY gene editing cure for lactose intolerance on themselves this video (Spoiler: it worked, very well in fact!)
Cites ithaxiomicMar 2023
“Pretty cool for sure and a great use of the technology.”
Self-designed virus to cure lactose intolerance.
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Here’s someone who orders parts from the internet to design a custom virus that genetically modifies his own cells to cure his lactose intolerance this video Pretty cool for sure and a great use of the technology. The reason more of us don’t do this is because we lack the knowledge of biology to understand what we’re doing That will soon change.
Cites itjuliusJun 2024
Homebrewed gene therapy for lactose intolerance.
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Reminds me of the Youtube Guy who homebrewed a gene-therapy to treat his Lactose Intolerance, successfully this video
Cites itben_wJul 2024
Example of self-experimentation with gene therapy.
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In general, if you want to bio-hack your own body, you're allowed, nobody will stop you. e.g. this video (even going past the first treatment he did on himself, to the updated version that's not yet human-rated, it's the creator going "please don't" rather than anything enforced). The health and safety concerns about stuff like this are mostly about other people getting hurt.
Cites itdlcarrierDec 2025
“It lasted for around a year and a half”
Effect lasted about a year and a half.
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There was a guy on YouTube who genetically engineered himself to gain lactose tolerance. ( link ) It lasted for around a year and a half ( this video ) before the effect mostly wore off. He took it orally, so it only affected his intestinal lining, and I presume it didn't effect enough stem cells to get a permanent effect, but it would still be usable as something taken annually, which is still far less often than any medication.
Cites ithaxiomicAug 2026
Example of YouTubers doing home genetic engineering.
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There’s YouTubers who do this [0]. I’d argue estimate the risks of a synthetically induced pandemic of massive impact this century are very high - [0] this video
Jokeh_spacerDec 2020Full comment
this video "I hope that this home brewed gene therapy doesn't kill me." are not words I expected to see in the first 30 seconds of a video.
