The 28-year-old CEO of Ascendance Biomedical removed his trousers and injected himself at the BDYHAX conference in Texas.
A 28-year-old chief executive officer of a small biotech apparently injected himself with an unproven and untested herpes gene therapy during a body hacking conference in Texas this past weekend – and of course, he streamed the event live on Facebook.
Aaron Traywick, who helms Ascendance Biomedical, stood before a crowd and cameras, dropped his pants and stuck a needle that allegedly contained the vaccine into his thigh at the BDYHAX conference. Traywick said the stunt was part of an effort to show transparency in what the company is doing to develop a treatment herpes type one and type two. During the livestream, Traywick said the company has spent about the last 12 months developing the vaccine. His goal is to have the serum be a one-time use that would cost consumers about $100.
It is not completely known what Traywick injected himself with. Technology Review reported that he claimed the serum was a “live attenuated herpes virus with a missing protein.” Gizmodo said the serum had only ever been tested in mice and Traywick became the first human subject. The designer of the serum is not a Ph.D. or medical doctor, but a biohacker described as someone with a master’s degree (no discipline specified) and is a bioentrepreneur and science lover. Gizmodo noted that the biohacker, Andreas Stuermer, discovered a paper that noted herpes relies on a protein on its surface known as “glycoprotein D.” Stuermer told Gizmodo that if the protein is deleted from the virus it should be able to prevent the spread of herpes.
Traywick, who has herpes, called the injection a live-testing that will demonstrate the company’s commitment to transparency. However, in an interview with MIT Technology Review, Traywick said the live-testing of an unproven treatment is also a political statement. He said the company’s design is to put treatments in the hands of people “without the requirement of a clinician or without the healthcare industry,” Technology Review noted. Traywick is a proponent of the ability to “self-design and self-administer treatments,” something the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has warned people against.
In November 2017, the FDA said gene therapies “offer the potential to treat diseases or conditions for which no or few treatments exist.” At the same time, the FDA said the sale of DIY gene therapy kits not officially approved was against the law, IBTimes reported. The FDA issued that warning after another live-testing of an Ascendance Biomedical treatment when an HIV serum was injected into a patient.
Traywick is not garnering a lot of support from other biohackers. Several raised concerns with Gizmodo and other productions over the methods Ascendance used and its lack of published data. Time will tell if there is any efficacy in the serum Traywick used or if any safety concerns are discovered.
Ascendance Biomedical lists three different anti-virals in the experimental stage. In addition to the herpes virus, the company is also developing an antiviral for HIV and a follistatin for performance enhancement.
