Transgender people may soon take do-it-yourself supplements using genetically modified tobacco plants, which they can grow in their homes to produce gender hormones like estrogen and testosterone. This comes from a project of a biologist to develop transgenic tobacco plants due to lack of access of many people to the healthcare they need.
The biologist and artist from Baltimore in the US, Ryan Hammond, is aiming to produce supplements easier with the genetically modified plants, Motherboard reports. He found tobacco essential for the project due to earlier discoveries of the capacity of the plant to produce pharmaceuticals.
The project comes from the growing concern that some doctors might be transphobic and many experts lack the experience and skills to provide patients the necessary medication.
Tobacco plants have already been used to produce collagen, hemoglobin and Ebola vaccines. Hammond will insert genes into the tobacco using plant pathogen Agrobacterium.
The first round of the tobacco products will not be distributed until determined safe for human trials. Hammond wants to refine the process based on its prototype to make the plants safe for human consumption.
Hammond has a background in art and has been exploring synthetic biology and new techniques in a community biohacking lab in Baltimore called BUGSS. The biologist has launched a crowdfunding to raise US$22,000 (approx. AU$30,231) for the project, covering his training, lab access and living costs for a year at Pelling Lab in Ottawa, Canada.
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(via heavensimulator)
