DIYBio and biotinkering - Laws and regulations in Germany
A few days ago, I was reading a book on working with cell cultures , which includes an overview of the legal requirements for working with GMOs in a lab. This was a bit of a smack on the head for me - I had never thought of that before. With all that talk and all the recent articles hyping garage biology (often meaning garage genetic engineering), I had never come across a discussion of the legal situation. How could I have missed that? So I looked into the matter, talked to people on the DIYBio mailing list, and it turns out that opening up a biohacking space in Germany as an autodidact is somewhat tricky. The following is a summary of the legal situation in Germany (though bear in mind that I'm no legal expert). Genetic engineering is regulated through the Gentechnikgesetz (GenTG) and the Gentechniksicherheitsverordnung (GenTSV) . Any work that inserts synthetic DNA into an organism falls under this law. To do that kind of work, you have to register a lab. This lab has to...