The Thought Emporium - 2018-02-13
For more than half a decade I've suffered from lactose intolerance. If I consumed even the smallest amounts of lactose I'd be violently ill within the hour. So as I was choosing my university I vowed that one day I'd fix it. Recently my friend Gabriel Licina, renowned biohacker and genetic engineer, gave me access to the tools and materials I needed to make a therapy that could potentially fix the issue. The therapy uses a virus called an AAV to deliver DNA that codes for the enzyme that breaks down lactose. When packaged into a pill and ingested, the virus should induce my intestine to produce lactase, effectively restoring lactose tolerance. This project was based on research done by other scientists and I've included links to all the papers below. I've also included links to all of the places I got the viral DNA kits from. The other reagents and media were all purchased from the thermofisher catalogue. I'm also working on a writeup of this procedure and will hopefully publish a paper on the results once I've collected more data. I know that so far my sample size is still only N=1 but my life has changed from this project and I wanted to share my progress. I'm not going to make any claims about the project other than my life seems to have improved. This is for educational purposes only. Do not attempt anything you see, unless you are an experienced biologist. __________________________________________________________________ Resources: Original paper: http://sci-hub.se/10.1038/2625 pAAVLacz Plasmid: https://www.cellbiolabs.com/paav-lacz-control-plasmid AAV kit: https://www.cellbiolabs.com/aav-2-cmv-expression-system ____________________________________________________________________ Support the show and future projects: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thethoughtemporium Nebula: https://go.nebula.tv/thethoughtemporium Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/thoughtemporium Become a member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV5vCi3jPJdURZwAOO_FNfQ/join Store: https://thethoughtemporium.ca/ ______________________________________________________ Our Social Media Pages: Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thethoughtemporium Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thethoughtemporium/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thethoughtemporium/ Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/emporiumthought Website: http://thethoughtemporium.com/ _____________________________________________________
Damn must be strange for the doctor when you have to pay a visit and he asks for your medical history
"Used to be lactose intolerant, cured it my self"
what do you mean, his doctor? he sees his doctor in the mirror every morning. this man puts doctors out of BUSINESS.
@@whittlyarts they hate him click to find out why
my guess is most doctors will just think "oh great one of THOSE people" and be wary for the moment he brings up essential oils or something.
@@Exarian And then this guy shows up a github repo with his dna on it
@@Exarian Some essential oils have a chemical that is pure close to acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin), and can cause overdose. It's not a safe hobby as a lot of people seems to think. There is a case report of a toddler overdosing in essential oils. I don't get why people spend money using something that was not extensively studied to try and treat health problems. It is much safer to use commercially available drugs. Maybe not in America, but a lot of countries do take care to ensure that the right drugs are being used. America is one of the few countries that allows prescribed drugs to be advertised. The pharmaceutical industry have its problems, but it is better to use peer reviewed drugs than to go with the "Natural" stuff.
Fate: You can't have milk
Absolute Mad Lad: edits own god damn DNA just to consume milk
Technically, there are ways that lactose intolerant people can consume lactose, so fate didn't say we can't have milk. When I want to consume lactose that I know will hurt me, I take a special little pill that just gives me the lactase I need to feel fine after having that bowl of ice cream. Or I just get lactose free things that have the lactose already broken down (which makes it sweeter)
@@maddyterrell0 bruh it's a joke
@@starletscarlet Yeah, I know. I'm just commenting for the sake if those that don't know that most lactose intolerant people can still consume milk and such. Just adding some information is all :)
@Anonymous faggot Ummm... first of all, what are you on about? Second of all, lactose intolerance is already chronic. So if you're trying to say companies are wanting to make lactose intolerance chronic (which it already is, btw) so they can make more money, you're partially correct. One, you can't make a chronic intolerance chronic, since it already is. Two, why wouldn't a company want to make money? You need money to live comfortably in this world.
Also, speak of the devil. I accidentally consumed too much lactose and got a mild reaction. Turns out I can't eat fajita nachos with coffee
@@maddyterrell0 no he is saying that the cure is the lactase enzyme you arent forming correctly through no fault of your own and this video shows one man's experiment curring the thing pharmaceuticals companies have been feeding you pills for.
my guy is using Bioshock plasmids to cure himself of no milk allowed disease
Its not a diesease, Your body can just stop producing it after you hit pueberty because theres no need for milk at that point
SammyCatman r/woooooosh
No milk mode = default mode
Invader DESLA
The dude is just explaining that it’s not a disease. Also it’s not even a joke, it more like a comment converted into a silly way of talking which is commonly found in meme culture nowadays
Bobby White oh whoops
I'm a BioMedicalEngineering student (BME), and this video is a godsend. Ever since I first learned about CRISPR and how revolutionary people thought it would be I've been wanting to try it. I became a BME student, but have been feeling lost, since the whole discipline is so widespread and often goes incredibly far away from my goal. My friend told me about this channel a few weeks ago, and this semester I am taking my cell lab, a class I've been waiting to take since Freshman year. Now I see this video today, doing an experiment I've wanted to do, with equipment I have access to and know how to use. The stars have aligned, and I feel like I can finally start my journey. Thank you man.
So this is how "the outbreak" will start and weall get stuck with some zombiecalypse that will undoubtedly ruin my vacation plans for next year... 🤔 😏
I'm an aspiring BME I was wondering what field your interested in. I also would like to know what to expect when it comes to learning. For example is it lab intensive? Do you have to memorize a bunch of stuff. Ect. Thx 😀
It's been 3 months, how's things going, man?
@@maesterwillyofthehouseofboink Well... with the corona virus, a zombie apocalypse sounds like a nice change of pace... at least you'd be able to see the infection coming over the horizon... and know where is actually safe :/
I hope your experiments go well. I am developping weird fucking intolerances and its making my life hell. I am happy that maybe in my life time these issues might be solved with a mere pill. You guys keep up the good work
"I just want to eat pizza again"
~Man who Accidentally Gave Himself AIDS
Same
Just get some lactace pills
@@bilbo_gamers6417 that's impossible
@@sheepketchup9059 very possible if HIV is present in the lab and anything is not entirely sterile
I have a hard time believing what I just saw.
I mean, you actually successfully performed gene therapy on yourself.
Wow...
piranha031091 I actually use the same techniques in my lab. What he did is kinda reckless, but at least it worked. It would be nice if you could use this to fix any disease, but it only works for diseases that come down to a single gene. In this case, I’m not sure you can call lactose intolerance a disease, but we do know what causes it. In the future, we’re hoping to do this with real diseases like Cystic Fibrosis and Sickle Cell Anemia.
@@BKScience812 Is there a reason why this treatment can't be done in multiple steps? Each step changing one gene at a time? Or do most diseases carry a large number of different genes to make this viable?
@@tomasboy999 There are a number of diseases that are caused by a single gene mutation, which can be treated based on how it's expressed, but there's also diseases like Schizophrenia which is likely the result of several genes. Other than the issue of not knowing where in our genome is causing the issue, there's also the question of delivery. Often times the immune system will destroy certain CRISPR or other gene therapy constructs if you inject them. Or you're targeting an entire organ and the treatment is just not efficient enough. Or the disease affects multiple organ systems at once.
Typically the fear with gene therapy is the risk of causing cancer in whatever tissue receives the gene. If you can precisely control where it inserts 100% of the time, if you're making a million insertions across a million cells, you may end up making a deletion of an important gene
@@BKScience812 Well stated. Bottom line is we don't have a complete understanding of the genome, and our methods are not 100% accurate/precise, one wrong gene cut and you are growing a tumor. It's something we need to continue to develop (which we are) before it becomes a "safe and effective" treatment. In 200 years we will probably be completely different beings with engineered DNA, but right now we are just starting to get how complicated it all is.
@@BKScience812 how an allergy not a decease?
Does this mean he has to lable himself as being a GMO
technicaly yes. but his reproductive cells are not modified
Only in the E.U.
@@Chrisspru Are we sure about that? Sperm is being constantly produced, instead of egg cells which are all produced when the woman is not even born yet. How do we know if the virus infected his sperm factories?
HenryCGS
Your concerns are invalid.
It doesn’t matter if sperm are constantly being made or if the eggs are already made. If you think an egg is safe just because it has undergone meiosis, you’re wrong. A theoretical vector could infect any cell in the human body if it manages to make contact with the cell and has the right biological identification. Also, cells are not perfect and can replicate incorrectly. That’s how Down syndrome occurs.
Also, your body’s DNA isn’t 100% your own. From the day you are born you get infected with viruses that have a chance of leaving the viral DNA in you. It’s a part of life.
Hell, even some people get infected with viruses before they are born.
Evolution as we know has also happened due to viral DNA getting shoved into other cells.
@@Chrisspru As far as we know now :D (years later: mutant Lactose babies starting the apocalypse)
"Mom can I go into Biology"
"To make the world a better place?"
"yeeeesssssssss"
actually cures lactose intolerance like a boss
~pizza time~
This comment made my day
I think it still counts making world better place.
Perfect
Still making the world a better place
@@Juke172 Yup when 65% of the world population actually struggles with lactose products.
"You're the bravest scientist!" she said, as the scientist is about to eat a pizza.
It's beyond me why this hasn't gotten more play on the internet. This is phenomenal work.
@Hernando Malinche ?
@Hernando Malinche How do you know? Did he say so?
Hernando Malinche how? How do you know? Seems sorta unlikely
@Hernando Malinche Is it a possibility? Yes! But since he's still alive and kicking as well as completely healthy I doubt it.
@Hernando Malinche Do you even know what a tumor really is? If he has infected enough cells to get rid of his lactose intolerance by altering the DNA of the cells in his intestines and the altercation would lead to cancer, he would have definitely noticed it by now. A tumor is nothing else but cells with mutated genomes, that can be bad or just an inconvenience. To your nuclear waste comment... No, not at all. Radiation literally rips electrons from your atoms making them different elements and cause a mutation that way. He altered his cells by introducing an altered genome. That's like comparing slicing an apple to smashing it with an hammer. Both are alterations to the genome but one is delicate and deliberate and the other one is smashing an apple with a god damn hammer.
Mad lad genetically modified himself in the name of pizza.
a worthy cause, i’d say
As someone who is severely lactose intolerant, I have high hopes for this project. I would even volunteer myself for human trials if it ever comes available. No one really understands how frustrating it is to not be able to eat or drink anything that may have a hint of lactose in it.
10/10 would participate in human trials for the chance to gain the ability to enjoy calzones again.
I think he beat you to that, lol
People with celiac disease totally understand the frustration.
There will be no human trials. Treatments are too much more profitable than cures.
has he started human trials yet? id love a glass of chocy milk again
Body: no more milk for you
Him: I'm about to do what's called a pro gamer move
hah reeeeeaaaaaally funny 😐
No one:
You: not funny didn't laugh
Lactose intolerance: Exists
Thought Emporium: I'm bouta end this mans whole career
"I would like a cure for lactose intolerance."
"You can't jus-"
"Fine I'll do it myself."
I work in a bio lab and it really surprised me that this actually worked. It's hard enough to get a viral vector to infect a small fraction of cells in a sterile dish with no immune response AND added chemicals to enhance the efficiency.
I've thought about doing this to treat my Gilbert's syndrome (gives me jaundiced yellow eyes and skin), but never did it because I figured it would never infect enough cells, also the procedure wouldn't be as easy as swallowing a pill because the functional UGT1A1 gene would need to be delivered to the liver somehow.
It's great to see someone that can bypass all the regulatory boundaries to make groundbreaking science happen faster.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I'm surprised too. Plus isn't the problems with pre immunity and long term expression when using AAV?
JUSTIN Y LORE
Actually have you thought of ex vivo transfection of MSC stem cell then intravenously introduce it?
Have you thought about injections, it is risky but probably the only way.
I am stressed out when I have to fix the engine of my bike or someone's phone and this guy... THIS GUY is fixing his own body on genetic level. That's not how I imagined the process of creating gene therapy.
This dude just felt like curing his lactose intolerance one day and just did it. Absolute madman. I bet if he got aids he'd find a cure 2 weeks later
I mean, we already kind of have a cure. Well, not exactly just we both have drugs to prevent it and drugs to stop it from progressing. You just have to keep taking them for the rest of your lives.
That actually happened, but then he forgot how he did it and therefore couldn't share it with the world. He spent a year trying to remember and gave up.
@@dixonpinfold2582 time to cure Alzheimer's?
@@Слышьты-ф4ю maybe🤣
It took years of study and preparation, but he did succeed.
homie literally just made a pill to fix lactose intolerance
"I am allergic to penicillin"
I used the penicillin allergy to destroy the lactose intolerance
I did an internship in a neuropathology lab on brain tumors. The process of taking care of the cells and looking for micro RNA signatures is basically the same as this; it always surprises me how similar to each lab runs. These methods are very safe, because they've been used frequently. But jumping straight to a non cell culture lab trial, testing on yourself like you did, is dangerous but also kind of brave
Its not unheard of though, If I recall, Helicobacter Pylori was proven as a cause of ulcers and gastritis in the same way. Barry Marshall infected, then cured himself with antibiotics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicobacter_pylori
Isn't everything brave kind of dangerous?
@@Stevobulfer Nope, for someone with arachnophobia it is extremely brave to let a spider crawl onto your hand, but if you live for example in Europe it is even safe if you have no clue what kind of spider crawled out of your basement onto your hand.
HiltownJoe But if you live in Texas, I strongly advise against it. Well, at least the small, brown, vaguely violin shaped ones who probably wouldn’t crawl onto your hand in the first place. Definitely avoid that one. If it’s big and has a red hourglass on its belly, well everyone knows what that is.
@@BKScience812 Jea, those fuckers are exactly the ones i thought of when i did not write outside Australia
i had NO IDEA we knew this much about biology
We know a ton about biology. The problem is we still don't know anything. That's the beauty of science. The more we discover, the more we find out we don't know. It just gets frustrating because some people like to act like we know it all when we don't. Junk DNA used to be thought as literal junk in our genome. Now we know it has extremely important regulatory roles.
I love the analogy of if you shine a light on a clearing from above, the more you light up the more darkness you can see around you waiting to be lit
Kavukamari This is but a small fraction of what we know, like a grain of sand on the beach. What we know is a small fraction of all there is to know, like a beach’s worth of sand in an ocean. That’s why we can always use more people willing to dive in for even more grains of sand.
"We" don't.
We know what works, and how can we make use of it and our knowledge in those increases but at the same time, we mostly begin to not know anything about how it works, and why it works.
never try to keep a man from his cheese
This guy spent years of his life learning biology to eat pizza.👏 what a madlad
Or disciplined dedication!!!
life isn't worth living if you can't eat pizza
Great video, made me study medicine, cheers from Czech Republic.
This gives a new meaning to “do it for the vlog.”
Nice work- this deserves more views.
Nah this is actually kind an of dangerous
no such thing as give or nice or desevx or view or not, doesn't matter
@@thestealth2448 booo! you suck!!!
Brilliant. Pizza necessity is the mother of invention. I'm no biologist, but I believe Domino's rather than Papa John's is the more correct test pizza in such a scenario.
Dominos always has an immediate effect on me.
man's really went to college just for some damn ben n jerrys
So weird to see some of my favorite science channels doing some of the same procedures I do in the lab now. I’ve come a long way!
Six years later this is still the most badass thing on youtube
Thank you for being so open about your process. I can see, how this would usually be behind a massive paywall, or not open to the public in general. While I can see, why some people would get upset about how straightforward you were with this project, I appreaciate it and actually think, it was brave. More people like you should be into science. Thank you very much!
amazing seeing people do science on their own, without some kind of organization involved. Also very well communicated the information through this presentation
"Hey dude wanna try this chocolate milk?"
"Hold on bro, let me go into the character editor real quick"
I watched this because of a tumblr post on instagram and I'm absolutely amazed.
Even though I'm far from being entirely convinced by the results, this is most definitely the type of video that i wanted to see when i subscribed to this channel.
I can relate to the "suddenly not able to eat most normal food" thing. Apparently I was born with Celiac and my body finally got fed up with a lifetime of eating grain in recent years. If I could take a pill one time a year or so that'd make it so I don't feel like dying if I eat the wrong thing, I'd strongly consider it.
There's actually a cure for Celiac's in human clinical trials. It's not a gene therapy, it's a 'reverse vaccine'. They exploit an existing pathway that the immune system can use to report friendly fire. Literally tells the cells that gluten counts as part of you.
They have one cooking for type-1 diabetes too, but it's not as far along.
(Take details with a grain of salt, I didn't look this up)
Wish you could do a treatment for Gluten Intolerance. Really sucks being limited to most foods that contain gluten, however, unlike you I can tolerant some small amounts of gluten but any large amounts my stomach will be killing me. Keep up the great work and I hope we see a way to cure all allergies and intolerances.
Any condition that is caused by a single genome can be "cured" this way
This is honestly one of the single most incredible videos I've seen, not because it's this insane, grandios tale of something world changing, but the fact you've set out on a goal to do something to better yourself and others and have achieved it, changing your life for the better. Any idea if this kinda thing would be able to treat other intolerances like gluten? And congrats on being able to finally enjoy pizza!
Probably not gluten because it's an immunological problem. This method would probably work against other sugars that cause digestive problems if you have a sequence for the enzyme required to metabolize it.
@@incognitotorpedo42i have fructose and sorbitol intolerance which is an absolute pain, would this help? i’m guessing it could but im no biologist
I was, briefly, lactose intolerant, but I just kept eating cheese and stopped getting sick. Seeing this makes me feel slightly less accomplished.
Well, what you did was basically allergen therapy, which is still very much valid (although way more difficult for some if their intolerances or allergies are severe). You throw shit at your body until it is forced to relent (alas, this doesn't always work)
Same happened with me.... In early to mid teens I was having gas from eating milk, but I kept eating cheese and drinking milk and by the end of my teenage I grew tolerance again.
you went the brute force method, he decided to literally change the system.
I tried to do the same with bees.
@@SmolTerribleTornado how'd it turn out?
This is an amazing video!! I wish there were a million more channels like this one. This is the future of education and knowledge, people who truly understand something sharing what they have learned for others who are interested in scientific knowledge without having to conform or be affected by the university academic "society." Thank you so much for sharing and I look forward to more videos.
Thanks :) glad you enjoyed
Low iq response
Holy shit, the ultimate madlad. But also, this is really cool, I can't believe you did this. Absolutely amazing.
This is the video that inspired me to change my major. I was lucky enough to get into bio 2900 during my second semester after doing so. What I learned in that class really helped me understand a good chunk of this experiment. Thank you so much for making this video. There aren’t many things I can say changed my entire life, but this is one of them.
What had you been studying?
Bless your Heart!
Bless your Brain!
Bless your Lower Intestine!
I actually saw the follow up to this first but wanted to see the original video as well. The fact that this method is still partially effective 2 years later is amazing (he now has to take lactase pills again but not nearly as many and he can still enjoy his pizza).
Can you give us an update?
He recently made a follow-up
Modern legends in the making: Thought emporium, cody's lab, nurdrage, canadian chemist, nile red, applied science, myst32yt, etc. How to explain to people that youtubers inspire and provide better education than most universities?
Isaac Arthur too.
@@theapexsurvivor9538 he's a storyteller not an educator primarily
@@imgayasheck595 but IA is does provide some pretty accurate education, just uses storytelling as a medium for providing it, which is a hell of a lot more effective than just giving you the info raw, as most people would tune out after the first minute or two of straight numbers.
@@theapexsurvivor9538
IA is great, John Michael Godier and his Event Horizon show are also fantastic.
On the math side, 3blue1brown is a real deal. On the physics side, Veritasium, minutephysics, PBS Space Time, Smarter Every Day, Anton Petrov, styropyro, Vsauce, and on the electrical engineering side, ElectroBOOM, on the chemistry side, NileRed, Cody's Lab, NurdRage and so on...
There are countless golden channels and people that everybody can access. The accessibility of information is soo good in our time, and I'm so happy about that.
Talk about dedication! I love how you talk about this in so matter of factly and in a "just a normal Friday evening" kind of way
All jokes aside this is the coolest thing I've ever seen in my life
I found this because of Tumblr and it's still insane to me that this channel exists and hasn't more views. Why??? This guy is like the Michael Reeves of biology.
@sof_t_ - 2020-03-15
The fact that this is formatted like a tutorial sends me
@peehubaodfa - 2020-03-27
Nah its in the form of a lab report, the tutorial part is just the procedure
@lhtyeehaw1319 - 2022-04-19
tbf, it might as well be a tutorial
@romywhite290 - 2022-10-26
I mean lab reports are tutorials, no? It's an explanation of what's being done and why. A recipe.
@danyl_bor11 - 2023-05-20
1000th like.