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status: "contested"status: "contested"horizon: "present"horizon: "present"categories: ["enhancement", "people"]categories: ["enhancement", "people"]tags: ["diy", "implants", "self-experimentation", "subculture", "regulation", "citizen science"]tags: ["diy", "implants", "self-experimentation", "subculture", "regulation", "citizen science", "longevity"]summary: "The practice of modifying one's own biology outside institutional medicine, ranging from subdermal implants to do-it-yourself gene transfer and open-source medical devices."summary: "The practice of modifying one's own biology outside institutional medicine, ranging from subdermal implants to do-it-yourself gene transfer and open-source medical devices."updated: "2026-07-28"updated: "2026-10-29"------ ```infobox```infobox{{ "caption": "Subculture and practice", "caption": "Subculture and practice", "rows": [ "rows": [ { "label": "Emerged", "value": "c. 2005–2010" }, { "label": "Emerged", "value": "c. 2005-2010" }, { "label": "Main strands", "value": "Grinders, DIYbio, quantified self" }, { "label": "Main strands", "value": "Grinders, DIYbio, quantified self, longevity" }, { "label": "Typical interventions", "value": "Magnets, RFID, supplements" }, { "label": "Typical interventions", "value": "Magnets, RFID, supplements" }, { "label": "Oversight", "value": "None; no adverse-event reporting" }, { "label": "Oversight", "value": "None; no adverse-event reporting" }, { "label": "Notable figures", "value": "Amal Graafstra, Josiah Zayner" }, { "label": "Notable figures", "value": "Amal Graafstra, Josiah Zayner, Bryan Johnson" }, { "label": "Legal status", "value": "Mostly lawful; sale often is not" } { "label": "Legal status", "value": "Mostly lawful; sale often is not" } ] ]}}`````` **Biohacking and grinders** are, respectively, a loose label for do-it-yourself modification of one's own biology and the name the implant subculture within it uses for itself. The term covers activities with almost nothing in common: inserting a magnet in a fingertip, running an open-source insulin pump, taking a stack of supplements, and injecting an unapproved gene-transfer construct. What unites them is the deliberate bypassing of the institutions — clinical trials, prescribing physicians, regulators — that normally stand between a person and an intervention on their own body.**Biohacking and grinders** are, respectively, a loose label for do-it-yourself modification of one's own biology and the name the implant subculture within it uses for itself. The term covers activities with almost nothing in common: inserting a magnet in a fingertip, running an open-source insulin pump, taking a stack of supplements, and injecting an unapproved gene-transfer construct. What unites them is that they deliberately bypass the institutions that normally stand between a person and an intervention on their own body: clinical trials, prescribing physicians and regulators. ## Strands## Strands lines 32–50 → 32–541 unchanged line not shown
**DIY biology** works with molecules rather than hardware. Community laboratories such as Genspace in New York and BioCurious in California, both founded around the turn of the 2010s, offer bench space and training to non-professionals, and the DIYbio network that formed in 2008 gave the movement a shared code of conduct.[^ledford2010] Most of the work is unremarkable molecular biology. A small fraction is self-experimentation.**DIY biology** works with molecules rather than hardware. Community laboratories such as Genspace in New York and BioCurious in California, both founded around the turn of the 2010s, offer bench space and training to non-professionals, and the DIYbio network that formed in 2008 gave the movement a shared code of conduct.[^ledford2010] Most of the work is unremarkable molecular biology. A small fraction is self-experimentation. **Open-source medicine** builds tools that industry has not. The most substantial example is do-it-yourself automated insulin delivery, in which people with type 1 diabetes reverse-engineered pump communication protocols and wrote closed-loop control algorithms years before commercial systems were approved, under the slogan "we are not waiting". An open-source system of this kind was subsequently tested in a randomised controlled trial and found safe and effective.[^burnside2022] This is the single clearest case of a biohacking project producing validated clinical benefit.**Open-source medicine** builds tools that industry has not. The most substantial example is do-it-yourself automated insulin delivery, in which people with type 1 diabetes reverse-engineered pump communication protocols and wrote closed-loop control algorithms years before commercial systems were approved, under the slogan "we are not waiting". An open-source system of this kind was subsequently tested in a randomised controlled trial and found safe and effective.[^burnside2022] It is the clearest case of a biohacking project producing a validated clinical benefit. **Lifestyle biohacking** is the largest strand by participation and the loosest by definition: supplement regimens, [[continuous-glucose-monitoring|continuous glucose monitors]] worn by people without diabetes, [[heat-and-cold-exposure|cold exposure and sauna use]], sleep tracking, and expensive self-quantification programmes. It shades into the [[nootropics]] market on one side and into the [[quantified-self|quantified-self movement]], named by two *Wired* editors in 2007, on the other.[^wolf2010] Consumer tests reporting a [[biological-age]] have become the strand's characteristic instrument, despite measuring something whose relation to health outcomes is unsettled.**Lifestyle biohacking** is the largest strand by participation and the loosest by definition: supplement regimens, [[continuous-glucose-monitoring|continuous glucose monitors]] worn by people without diabetes, [[heat-and-cold-exposure|cold exposure and sauna use]], sleep tracking, and expensive self-quantification programmes. It shades into the [[nootropics]] market on one side and into the [[quantified-self|quantified-self movement]], named by two *Wired* editors in 2007, on the other.[^wolf2010] Consumer tests reporting a [[biological-age]] have become the strand's characteristic instrument, despite measuring something whose relation to health outcomes is unsettled. **Longevity biohacking** is the wealthy, data-heavy end of the lifestyle strand. Its most prominent practitioner, the software entrepreneur [[bryan-johnson|Bryan Johnson]], follows a physician-supervised regimen of diet, supplements, medications and dense biomarker measurement, publishes it as the [[blueprint-protocol|Blueprint protocol]], and sells foods and supplements built around it. The strand reaches beyond lifestyle into experimental medicine. In 2023 Johnson completed six one-litre exchanges of plasma from young donors, one of them using plasma from his then 17-year-old son, and stopped after reporting that his biomarkers showed no benefit;[^fortune2023] the FDA had warned in 2019 that young-donor plasma infusions have no proven clinical benefit.[^fda2019] He has also received a follistatin gene therapy from Minicircle, a company based in Próspera, a special economic zone in Honduras with its own regulatory system, where the therapy is sold to paying clients without published rigorous trial data.[^hamzelou2025] Critics raise four objections. A regimen followed by one person, however heavily measured, cannot separate the effect of any single component from the others or from chance. The person generating the data also profits from products it is used to promote. Offshore treatments depend on jurisdictions chosen for their permissiveness, and publicising the trips normalises that choice. And the cost puts the approach out of reach for nearly everyone, a concern treated in [[access-and-inequality]]. ```timeline```timeline[[ { "year": "2005", "title": "First hobbyist RFID implant", "text": "Amal Graafstra implants a radio-frequency tag in his hand to open doors, establishing the template for hardware implants outside medicine." }, { "year": "2005", "title": "First hobbyist RFID implant", "text": "Amal Graafstra implants a radio-frequency tag in his hand to open doors, establishing the template for hardware implants outside medicine." }, { "year": "2007–2008", "title": "Quantified self and DIYbio", "text": "The quantified-self label is coined and the DIYbio network forms, giving amateur biology a shared identity and a code of conduct." }, { "year": "2007-2008", "title": "Quantified self and DIYbio", "text": "The quantified-self label is coined and the DIYbio network forms, giving amateur biology a shared identity and a code of conduct." }, { "year": "2013", "title": "Circadia", "text": "Grindhouse Wetware implants a Bluetooth-enabled temperature sensor in a member's forearm, installed by a body-modification artist rather than a physician." }, { "year": "2013", "title": "Circadia", "text": "Grindhouse Wetware implants a Bluetooth-enabled temperature sensor in a member's forearm, installed by a body-modification artist rather than a physician." }, { "year": "2015", "title": "Open-source insulin delivery spreads", "text": "Do-it-yourself closed-loop systems built from reverse-engineered pumps reach a substantial user base well ahead of approved equivalents." }, { "year": "2015", "title": "Open-source insulin delivery spreads", "text": "Do-it-yourself closed-loop systems built from reverse-engineered pumps reach a substantial user base well ahead of approved equivalents." }, { "year": "2017", "title": "Self-administered gene transfer", "text": "Josiah Zayner injects himself with a CRISPR construct targeting myostatin on stage at a synthetic-biology conference; no effect on muscle is reported and he later describes the act as a mistake." }, { "year": "2017", "title": "Self-administered gene transfer", "text": "Josiah Zayner injects himself with a CRISPR construct targeting myostatin on stage at a synthetic-biology conference; no effect on muscle is reported and he later describes the act as a mistake." }, { "year": "2018", "title": "A death and a reckoning", "text": "Aaron Traywick, who had self-administered an experimental herpes treatment in public, is found dead in a flotation tank; the episode ends the brief vogue for stunt self-dosing." }, { "year": "2018", "title": "A death and a reckoning", "text": "Aaron Traywick, who had self-administered an experimental herpes treatment in public, is found dead in a flotation tank; the episode ends the brief vogue for stunt self-dosing." }, { "year": "2019–2020", "title": "First targeted law", "text": "California requires gene-therapy kits sold to consumers to carry a notice that they are not for self-administration, following a federal warning that such sales are unlawful." } { "year": "2019-2020", "title": "First targeted law", "text": "California requires gene-therapy kits sold to consumers to carry a notice that they are not for self-administration, following a federal warning that such sales are unlawful." }, { "year": "2023", "title": "Longevity regimen goes public", "text": "Bryan Johnson ends a series of young-donor plasma exchanges, one using his son's plasma, after reporting no measurable benefit to his own biomarkers." }, { "year": "2025", "title": "Montana licenses experimental clinics", "text": "Montana amends its Right to Try Act to license centres offering, for payment, treatments that have passed phase 1 trials but lack FDA approval." }]]`````` lines 55–81 → 59–874 unchanged lines not shown
The United States Food and Drug Administration stated in 2017 that the sale of gene-therapy products intended for self-administration is unlawful.[^fda2017] California followed in 2019 with a statute requiring consumer gene-therapy kits to carry a warning against self-use, the first law written specifically for this practice.[^sb180] Separately, unregulated clinics and companies operating in permissive jurisdictions have supplied follistatin and telomerase constructs to paying individuals, a commercial activity distinct from the hobbyist scene but frequently confused with it; see [[gene-therapy-for-aging]].The United States Food and Drug Administration stated in 2017 that the sale of gene-therapy products intended for self-administration is unlawful.[^fda2017] California followed in 2019 with a statute requiring consumer gene-therapy kits to carry a warning against self-use, the first law written specifically for this practice.[^sb180] Separately, unregulated clinics and companies operating in permissive jurisdictions have supplied follistatin and telomerase constructs to paying individuals, a commercial activity distinct from the hobbyist scene but frequently confused with it; see [[gene-therapy-for-aging]]. > [!caution] What self-experiments can and cannot show> [!caution] What self-experiments can and cannot show> An uncontrolled intervention on one person, with no blinding and an outcome the person is invested in, cannot establish efficacy. The self-experiment tradition in medicine — self-inoculation, self-catheterisation — produced findings because the effects were unmistakable and immediate. Nothing in the enhancement space has that property, so the epistemic value of these demonstrations is close to zero even when the participant is honest.> An uncontrolled intervention on one person, with no blinding and an outcome the person is invested in, cannot establish efficacy. The self-experiment tradition in medicine, which includes self-inoculation and self-catheterisation, produced findings because the effects were unmistakable and immediate. Nothing in the enhancement space has that property, so the epistemic value of these demonstrations is close to zero even when the participant is honest. ## Safety## Safety Implant risks are those of any foreign body inserted without sterile technique: local infection, migration, extrusion, and allergic response to coating materials. Magnets whose parylene or silicone coating fractures cause local necrosis and must be removed. Implanted electronics complicate magnetic resonance imaging and are difficult to explant intact. Installation is usually performed by body-modification practitioners, who in most jurisdictions may not administer local anaesthetic, so procedures are done without it.Implant risks are those of any foreign body inserted without sterile technique: local infection, migration, extrusion, and allergic response to coating materials. Magnets whose parylene or silicone coating fractures cause local necrosis and must be removed. Implanted electronics complicate magnetic resonance imaging and are difficult to explant intact. Installation is usually performed by body-modification practitioners, who in most jurisdictions may not administer local anaesthetic, so procedures are done without it. Molecular self-experiments carry the risks catalogued in clinical gene therapy with none of its safeguards: immune reaction to an [[aav-vectors|adeno-associated viral vector]], uncontrolled expression, contamination of preparations made outside a controlled facility, and the absence of anyone monitoring the outcome. The community's own harm-reduction norms — sterile technique, avoiding viral vectors, keeping a witness present — are unenforceable.Molecular self-experiments carry the risks catalogued in clinical gene therapy with none of its safeguards: immune reaction to an [[aav-vectors|adeno-associated viral vector]], uncontrolled expression, contamination of preparations made outside a controlled facility, and the absence of anyone monitoring the outcome. The community's own harm-reduction norms (sterile technique, avoiding viral vectors, keeping a witness present) are unenforceable. Because nothing is reported to any authority, the actual complication rate across the whole practice is unknown. That is itself the most reliable statement available about its safety.Because nothing is reported to any authority, the complication rate across the whole practice is unknown, and that is the most reliable statement available about its safety. ## Law, governance, and the biosecurity question## Law, governance, and the biosecurity question Modifying one's own body is generally lawful. Selling something for that purpose usually is not, and practising medicine without a licence certainly is not; enforcement has concentrated on the sellers rather than the users. Consent law imposes an outer limit that surprises many participants: in England and Wales, the Court of Appeal has held that consent is not a defence to charges arising from serious body modification performed by a non-medical practitioner, a ruling discussed further in [[morphological-freedom]].Modifying one's own body is generally lawful. Selling something for that purpose usually is not, and practising medicine without a licence certainly is not; enforcement has concentrated on the sellers rather than the users. Consent law imposes an outer limit that surprises many participants: in England and Wales, the Court of Appeal has held that consent is not a defence to charges arising from serious body modification performed by a non-medical practitioner, a ruling discussed further in [[morphological-freedom]]. The biosecurity concern attached to community laboratories has been examined repeatedly and has consistently been judged low. Amateur laboratories lack the tacit skill and the equipment for anything dangerous, and the community has cooperated with law enforcement since the late 2000s. Analysts of citizen science have argued that the more realistic policy problem is not amateur bioterror but an absence of any route by which useful amateur work — the insulin systems, for instance — can be evaluated and adopted.[^guerrini2018] The genuinely serious version of the biosecurity question concerns commercial DNA synthesis and design tools rather than garages, and is treated in [[dual-use-research]].The biosecurity concern attached to community laboratories has been examined repeatedly and has consistently been judged low. Amateur laboratories lack the tacit skill and the equipment for anything dangerous, and the community has cooperated with law enforcement since the late 2000s. Analysts of citizen science have argued that the more realistic policy problem is the absence of any route by which useful amateur work, such as the insulin systems, can be evaluated and adopted, rather than amateur bioterror.[^guerrini2018] The more serious version of the biosecurity question concerns commercial DNA synthesis and design tools rather than garages, and is treated in [[dual-use-research]]. One US state has begun to open a lawful domestic route to some unapproved interventions. Montana's Senate Bill 535, signed in May 2025, amends the state's Right to Try Act to cover "experimental treatments" that have completed phase 1 of a clinical trial but lack FDA approval, lets providers charge for them, and creates a state licence for experimental treatment centres.[^mtsb535] A patient qualifies by considering approved options, obtaining a provider's recommendation, and giving written consent; terminal illness is not required. Phase 1 trials test safety in small groups and do not establish efficacy, a point the law's critics have pressed. Its implementing rules took effect in July 2026, so as of October 2026 the scheme has little operating record. ## Criticism and standing## Criticism and standing Mainstream bioethics treats the movement's central claim — that individuals should be able to accept risk on their own behalf — as reasonable in principle and badly executed in practice. It is the same claim that organises the wider debate over [[human-enhancement]], stripped of the institutional framing that debate usually assumes, and it is assessed in [[bioethics-of-enhancement]]. The objection is not paternalism but that self-experimenters generate no usable knowledge, expose themselves to harms they cannot assess, and, when they perform for cameras, recruit others with less understanding. The disability-rights critique in [[disability-rights-and-enhancement]] adds that the subculture's framing of the body as a platform to be upgraded sits awkwardly with the experience of people whose bodies are already objects of medical intervention they did not choose.The movement's central claim is that individuals should be able to accept risk on their own behalf. Mainstream bioethics treats it as reasonable in principle and badly executed in practice. It is the same claim that organises the wider debate over [[human-enhancement]], stripped of the institutional framing that debate usually assumes, and it is assessed in [[bioethics-of-enhancement]]. The objection does not rest on paternalism. It holds that self-experimenters generate no usable knowledge, expose themselves to harms they cannot assess, and, when they perform for cameras, recruit others with less understanding. The disability-rights critique in [[disability-rights-and-enhancement]] adds that the subculture's framing of the body as a platform to be upgraded sits awkwardly with the experience of people whose bodies are already objects of medical intervention they did not choose. Within the [[transhumanism|transhumanist]] tradition the movement occupies an ambiguous position. It is the only strand that acts rather than argues, and the actions have produced one validated medical technology and a series of failed stunts. The interesting question is why the ratio is that way: the insulin work succeeded because it targeted a well-characterised control problem with an immediate, measurable endpoint, and every failed enhancement self-experiment has targeted a diffuse outcome measurable only over years. Whether any enhancement goal has the first shape is unclear, and if none does, the practice has a ceiling that no amount of nerve will raise.Within the [[transhumanism|transhumanist]] tradition the movement occupies an ambiguous position. It is the only strand that acts rather than argues, and the actions have produced one validated medical technology and a series of failed stunts. The difference lies in the targets: the insulin work succeeded because it targeted a well-characterised control problem with an immediate, measurable endpoint, and every failed enhancement self-experiment has targeted a diffuse outcome measurable only over years. Whether any enhancement goal has the first shape is unclear. If none does, the practice has a ceiling that no willingness to accept risk can raise. ## See also## See also lines 95–99 → 101–10913 unchanged lines not shown
[^burnside2022]: `paper` Burnside, M. J. et al. "Open-Source Automated Insulin Delivery in Type 1 Diabetes." *New England Journal of Medicine*, 2022. {A randomised trial in New Zealand in children and adults with type 1 diabetes, testing a community-built system under clinical supervision.}[^burnside2022]: `paper` Burnside, M. J. et al. "Open-Source Automated Insulin Delivery in Type 1 Diabetes." *New England Journal of Medicine*, 2022. {A randomised trial in New Zealand in children and adults with type 1 diabetes, testing a community-built system under clinical supervision.}[^fda2017]: `regulator` U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "Information About Self-Administration of Gene Therapy." Public statement, 2017.[^fda2017]: `regulator` U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "Information About Self-Administration of Gene Therapy." Public statement, 2017.[^sb180]: `law` California Senate Bill 180 (2019), requiring consumer notice on gene-therapy kits sold in California. {The statute requires a warning notice at the point of sale; it does not prohibit selling the kits or using them on oneself.}[^sb180]: `law` California Senate Bill 180 (2019), requiring consumer notice on gene-therapy kits sold in California. {The statute requires a warning notice at the point of sale; it does not prohibit selling the kits or using them on oneself.}[^fortune2023]: `news` Mikhail, A. "Tech CEO Bryan Johnson admits he saw 'no benefits' after controversially injecting his son's plasma into his body to reverse his biological age." *Fortune*, 2023. {Reports Johnson's own post announcing the end of six monthly exchanges; the no-benefit finding is his self-assessment, not a study.}[^fda2019]: `regulator` U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "Important Information about Young Donor Plasma Infusions for Profit." Safety communication, 2019.[^hamzelou2025]: `news` Hamzelou, J. "This company is developing gene therapies for muscle growth, erectile dysfunction, and radical longevity." *MIT Technology Review*, 2025. {Centres on a different Próspera company, Unlimited Bio; mentions Minicircle and Johnson only in passing.}[^mtsb535]: `law` Montana Senate Bill 535 (2025), "Revise laws related to experimental treatments", chapter 621, Laws of Montana 2025; implemented by Administrative Rules of Montana 37.106, subchapter 33. {The enrolled text sets a 10,000 dollar licence fee and requires centres to put 2 percent of net annual profits toward access for Montana residents.}[^guerrini2018]: `paper` Guerrini, C. J., Majumder, M. A., Lewellyn, M. J. and McGuire, A. L. "Citizen science, public policy." *Science*, 2018.[^guerrini2018]: `paper` Guerrini, C. J., Majumder, M. A., Lewellyn, M. J. and McGuire, A. L. "Citizen science, public policy." *Science*, 2018. removed, struck through added, underlinedLine numbers count the serialised markdown of each revision, frontmatter included.
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