According to Chris Buck it was! Which is suprising because it sounds like it was only brewed for 24 - 72 hours before he drank it. I neglected to mention this in the piece, but the beer had maltose added, which served two roles. Firstly, the GMO yeast plasmids had a maltose promoter added, so they only produce VP1 when maltose is present - so the maltose provides control over dosing and timing of the VP1 release. Secondly, the maltose adds flavor to the beer!
Gotcha - sounds like he was just fermenting pure sugar then? Maltose is the primary sugar in barley so there would have been no need to add in if he was making a traditional beer (which would’ve needed to ferment for much longer as well)
Very interesting and promising technology! I think a lot of anti-vaxxers and needle-avoiders might accept a beer or two to boost their immune system against disease.
These self-experimenters are gutsy. Reminds me of Dr Forssmann, who back around 1930, inserted a home-made catheter into his vein all the way into his heart while standing in front of a fluoroscope to guide it. Then he walked up the hospital stairs with this thing stuck into his heart, and had the radiology folks take an image of it. This was when the common thinking was that this would cause heart failure. Led the way to all kinds of coronary catheter technology that we use today.
Hope the yeast based vaccines follow a similar trajectory.
Was the beer delicious?
According to Chris Buck it was! Which is suprising because it sounds like it was only brewed for 24 - 72 hours before he drank it. I neglected to mention this in the piece, but the beer had maltose added, which served two roles. Firstly, the GMO yeast plasmids had a maltose promoter added, so they only produce VP1 when maltose is present - so the maltose provides control over dosing and timing of the VP1 release. Secondly, the maltose adds flavor to the beer!
Gotcha - sounds like he was just fermenting pure sugar then? Maltose is the primary sugar in barley so there would have been no need to add in if he was making a traditional beer (which would’ve needed to ferment for much longer as well)
Thank you for telling Chris's story, Dan! I hope this technology goes as far as it can –– it is much needed
Wow, really amazing and promising… thank you for the detailed info 💯
Very interesting and promising technology! I think a lot of anti-vaxxers and needle-avoiders might accept a beer or two to boost their immune system against disease.
These self-experimenters are gutsy. Reminds me of Dr Forssmann, who back around 1930, inserted a home-made catheter into his vein all the way into his heart while standing in front of a fluoroscope to guide it. Then he walked up the hospital stairs with this thing stuck into his heart, and had the radiology folks take an image of it. This was when the common thinking was that this would cause heart failure. Led the way to all kinds of coronary catheter technology that we use today.
Hope the yeast based vaccines follow a similar trajectory.