hey I'm new to the forums and to biopunking in general. How do you get started, what sort of stuff do you need and how much is it going cost to get going?

Cheers

Tom

A fair question. I don't have a good answer.

It's good if there happens to be biolab having a garage sale next door and one can get hold of some of their second hand equipment.

It's a diy world right now. I think it's a lot like that for the professionals too. That's the feeling I get when I talk to people and browse life science materials catalogs. In the catalogs it's like there is a bunch of somewhat random parts that people are not always sure what they can be used for but there they are for sale. And as the buyers are institutions and corporate labs the prices are often steep. Could have something to do with strict quality requirements to do too. I don't know.

I guess the short answer is that what things cost depend on what one wants to do. Genome sequencing is cheap. Protein purification seems to be an art form and expensive. I'm sorry I don't have a better answer for you.

In a perfect world there would be a Bio Heath-Kit or some other obvious answer.

Welcome

- Splicer

http://www.carolina.com/

Carolina Biological Supply Co. has a lot of good science equipment and kits for beginners. They offer organisms like E. coli and drosophila. However, it can get pricey, particularly with equipment. A lot depends on how much you are willing to spend. Some materials are hazardous and can only be delivered to schools and businesses though.

Hope that helps.

Aren't there Linux-based programs for Gene sequencing? You then send them to certain companies to have them made into synthetic DNA...

Now, what I wanna know is how can you make it so that if you improve yourself using synthetic DNA, how can you make it so that you pass it on through heredity?

Hi
Boreal institute also has a lot of stuff:
http://boreal.com/biotechnology-and-genetics/c/1906/

you can get synthetic dna sequences from http://www.dna20.com