Does anybody have an idea how I can get into home DNA research?

basic equipment you'll need:
frost-free freezer
centrifuge
glassware/plasticware (petri dishes, erlenmeyers, graduated cylinders)
pressure cooker (cause i know you ain't buying an autoclave)
some basic odds and ends, see below
scale
legal necessities
and finally, chemicals

for the centrifuge you need at least a microfuge, check ebay. you might be able to make do for a while with one of those weird power drill attachments but trust me, if you do this a lot you'll want to get a microfuge. and you'll probably have to order commercial competent cells, because you won't have a floor centrifuge so there's no way you're making your own.

a kitchen scale that can do tenths of a gram reliably will be enough for most of your use cases, although if you ever have to measure out chemicals that you need milligram scale of, WHEW.

odds and ends - like an alcohol burner or a bunsen burner hooked up to a gas tank, forceps, scrapers/spatulas, weighboats, something to spread bacteria with,

legal necessities - if you're actually setting up a home lab you need to look into regulations near you to make sure you don't end up royally buttfucked by the police or the fire department. chemical waste disposal, biohazard disposal, proper chemical inventory and storage, proper chemical labeling, fire safety systems, evacuation and safety plans. this is overkill if you're just doing this once or twice but seriously, you will get REAMED if a fire ever breaks out and the fire department comes in and sees all your shit and you're not by-the-book

chemicals, you probably won't be able to order anything complicated from the major chemical suppliers but for most of the chemicals you need for basic molbio, you can just get freely as a regular person if you're creative and willing to put up with impurities. learn the quick and dirty DNA prep methods.

and finally, basic cells and plasmids. just bribe a grad student with some beer or something.

>>8289014
I live in south america, I don't need to be scared of legal necessities really, if I get caught I'll just let 100 dollar slide and move to a different city or country.

>>8288984
Some materials and reagents would be impossible to obtain through legal means. Even for something harmless like DNA oligos and plasmids, all suppliers I know of require you to be part of a credited institute. If someone gets wind of what you are doing, prepare to get your house raided and suspected of bio-terrorism.

The financial cost should not be underestimated, because some big costs are unavoidable if you want to do more than just cloning (such as protein purification). Assuming you just stick to making synthetic bacteria genomes, it will still be costly.

You will require time and patience, because even in state of the art labs biology doesn't work and/or things get contaminated.

Consider exactly what the purpose of such an endeavor would be. What do you want to do and why? If you have no clear goal then its all a bit silly honestly. To have a clear goal you need ideas of what could be cool, and to do that requires reading of the literature. This is even more time you must dedicate.

I would recommend offering to intern at some mol bio lab (if any allow that sort of thing) before you commit. This will give you an idea of what is needed, jow much time and frustration some things take, etc.

>>8288984
A px459 or similar plasmid will cost a few hundred dollars

The oligos to ligate into the vector cost like a hundred

And you need enzymes, which cost a few hundred each (at minimum you need a ligase and a restriction enzyme)

You'll need ecoli, and you'll need a miniprep kit.

In total that's like $3000-6000. And that's for the plasmid alone (though that's probably the most expensive step.)

>>8289043
I have some friends that work in various biolabs, I have some goals and ideas, but I want to learn first before dedicating time, energy and money into a project that is too complex for my current knowledge. I am not concerned about the legal point because I currentliy live in a very small town in South America. Even if the police knew about what I'm doing, they wouldn't interfere at all.

>>8289045
3-6k sounds solid, I have around 15k saved up for this right now. Thanks for the post.

>>8289051
If you have friends in biolabs you are better off either getting a intern like position with them or bribing them into giving you free access into the lab after hours or something (and pretend to be a student), cos this will be cheaper and less time consuming than building your own lab from scratch.

>>8289051
Even if you have the money I would strongly suggest working towards getting into a PhD program instead. I mean, wouldn't it be better to get paid to do this instead of draining your savings?

>>8289051
>but I want to learn first before dedicating time, energy and money into a project that is too complex for my current knowledge.
Then you should go work in an actual lab for a while. You will have people to help you and point you in the right direction and ease of access to the materials you need. And if you are still intent on yhis home lab thing, you could also take a microlitre of useful commercial plasmids for home to save you from buying them from scratch.

>>8289059
This would work in an American lab, not in a South American, not only are they missing (A lot) equipment because they're underfunded but they don't even do the things I'm interested in, which might, if all things go well, get a bit illegal. I'll ask my friends for help and where to find stuff for sure though.

>>8289066
I have a degree in biochemistry, worked very little in the field though because I have set up an online business that earns me roughly 7k a month, more than 10x the amount a job in a lab would earn here.

The sad problem with working on your degree and later on working for a company is that you're not really allowed to do your own projects and are limited by their funding (especially bad here in South America).

I think just building an own lab is more worth it, I spend almost none of my earnings anyways.

>>8289073
"Probieren geht über studieren"

I hate being limited by corporation funds and their ideologies, especially 3rd worlds ones.

>>8289078
What cunt?

>>8289078
Well seeing as you have your heart set on this, search for second hand lab equipment from schools or something. Maybe get your friends to smuggle you plasmids or things that cannot be delivered to a home address. Use sci-hub for all your papers. Look at online biohacker forums for better tips. Accept that things won't work due to impurities.

>>8289086
Peru atm

>>8289092
I'll check out some forums, any suggestions?

>>8289094
I once looked up a bunch but never book marked them. Google around. ScienceAAAS and Nature have some good articles about starting up labs on budgets, so search them too.

>>8289094
Try to get a copy of Molecular Cloning: a lab manual by cold spring harbour. It has heaps of old school techniques that would be cheap, and having it beats googling most days. Highly reccomend. Never could find a torrent though, so good luck.

>>8289119
god i wish i had a torrent of that too

we have a couple sets of that kicking around the lab so i can always check it but it'd be nice to have a digital copy for myself