A Hacker needs intimate and thorough understanding of the internal workings of a system to successfully and elegantly manipulate that system; along with the chutzpah to do so. ;)
Living tissue is active matter; it dissipates free energy while maintaining itself in a viable state. This requires a Control system that reduces the degrees of freedom of the system to only those desired.
All disorders are disorders of control. Either Control allowed physiology to get into a bad state, or Control did not get physiology out of a bad state. Bio-hacking requires understanding physiology from the perspective of Control.
Good design heuristics make modular systems with designed interfaces. Evolution didn't do that. Modern living environments are very different than environments our ancestors evolved in. Not surprising a number of disorders that are common in the urban developed world are rare to unknown in the rural undeveloped world; things like diabetes, obesity, allergies, inflammatory disorders. This observation has lead to the “hygiene hypothesis”; the idea that there is a “factor” associated with “dirt” or lack of “hygiene” that is protective. This presents the hypothesis that the loss of ammonia oxidizing bacteria through modern bathing practices adversely affects the background nitric oxide level and so perturbs all NO-mediated control pathways, with no threshold.
The importance of the background level of nitric oxide will be discussed in the context of a component of the human microbiome; ammonia oxidizing bacteria living on the skin and converting ammonia in sweat into nitrite and nitric oxide so as to set the background NO/NOx level to avoid nitropenia.
David Whitlock is Chief Scientist/co-founder of AOBiome and discovered that AOB are commensal organisms for many eukaryotes. He received his MS and BS in Chemical Engineering from MIT.
Jasmina is a consumer goods entrepreneur who received her degree in chemical and biological engineering from MIT. Her unconventional path combined her technical background with roles at personal care brands.
Christian (quaddi) Dameff is an emergency medicine physician, former open capture the flag champion, prior Defcon speaker, and researcher. Published works include topics such as therapeutic hypothermia after cardiac arrest, novel drug targets for myocardial infarction patients, and other Emergency Medicine related works with an emphasis on CPR optimization. His most recent focus is on biohacking, medical device security, and critical medical infrastructure cyber security. He can’t spell words well. This is his tenth Defcon.
Jeff Tully is a pediatric physician and researcher with an interest in understanding the ever-growing intersections between health care and technology. Prior to medical school he worked on “hacking” the genetic code of Salmonella bacteria to create anti-cancer tools but now spends a majority of his time dreaming of a world where human beings will be able to upload their consciousness into utterly immersive simulations of the Star Wars universe.
Peter Hefley has no medical device implants because he is squeamish about blood and cutting oneself open. With experience in information security consulting and penetration testing, he'd like to help lay the groundwork for body modifications and biohacking in a way that prevents folks' brains from getting pwned.