The Center for Cognitive Skill Enhancement (CCSE), the School of Life Sciences (SLS), and the International Center for Biotechnology and Health (ICBH) at IUB hosted Dr. Adeline Seah from the National University of Singapore for a talk and workshop on the biohacking on February 9, 2017. Over sixty faculty and students participated in the workshop. Biohacking is a community movement that emphasizes DIY biology initiatives such as assembling cheap devices for amplifying and sequencing DNA extracted in the field, for applications such as species discovery. It seeks to educate people on how to stay more aware of their health and environment by understanding their own genetics and the nature of interactions with various chemicals. Dr. Seah began her talk in CSE’s Center for Cognitive Skill Enhancement where she presented briefly on the history and scope of biohacking. Following her presentation, Dr. Seah demonstrated a DNA electrophoresis experiment in the SLS laboratory. Such exposure to experimental techniques and the genetic code of life is invaluable as we move towards becoming a general population that has a better understanding of its own biology and science in general.
