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This is an ongoing project started 2020-05-14, last updated then to create the page.

Purpose and Justification

Breakdown of the Project

Purpose and Justification

    While disappointing, the 2013 Ketchum DNA study justifies further research¹. Unfortunately I can count on one hand the number of people who currently actually understand what the study did achieve discovery of. An upcoming book² may help illuminate a few people who are both curious enough and intelligent enough to grasp the ideas as to what the Sasquatch Genome Project publication truly uncovered. Sadly the lines are drawn largely on the basis of emotional bias and ignorance both willful and incidental, and there is little real interest in driving further DNA research at this time.

    A co-worker at a recent job, it turns out, has been doing DNA research for his own project, and has convinced me to explore this idea further. He does the chemistry in his own lab at home, and has only the sequencing done by a lab supportive of personal research projects.

    For a proof of concept, I do not even need to equip my own lab. There are DIY biohacking labs with time-for-hire benchs available for the chemistry. They will typically be able to supply many of the common reagent needs at cost of materials and preparation.

    A superficial examination of the equipment needed for this brings in a total of under around $6000 to build a DNA lab using surplused equipment. This equipment may need repairs that are likely to be within the skill set of either myself or of experimental peers in the workplace.

    Even sequencing equipment might be obtained as surplused equipment. This would mean, in principle, that the entire job could be done in my workshop...

    Contrary to the opinions of some, there are plenty of labs curious about such a project and eager to consider it. However, their costs of handling are high, and they are typically unwilling to carry the costs of experimental science.

    The justification of such an effort is going to be based on the need to analyze approprite samples. The availability of samples is, shall we say, rare. The subject is, shall we say, uncooperative in providing efficacious samples. The belief that there is actual justification for more work is also rare.

1 - (Link TBD) My analysis of the 2013 Sasquatch Genome Project.

2 - (Link TBD) Upcoming book analyzing the 2013 Sasquatch Genome Project.

Project Breakdown

    The most important thing to determine is if I can keep a sterile lab and prevent cross contamination of samples in the lab. I obviously have little control of samples before they reach me, so I am not inclined to even consider wasting my time with samples collected by other people who may have no clue how to properly collect a sample for DNA analysis - or worse yet they think they do...

    I am not going to write a paper on scientific (or even general) illiteracy among humans. As much as people are happy to criticize Americans on this, it is the human animal in general that is often too lazy to do more than the minimum required to continue wasting air. It is not the goal of this project to raise interest in people who have none, here I am simply reminding myself of that.

    So, this project will have several stages. Before collecting samples there will need to be an inventory of the processes needed to prepare for sequencing of DNA material. This is needed to determine a cost of materials involved to compare to current laboratory rates.

    The estimated cost of extraction and sequencing at current prices is around $4000 for species identification alone. Another $4000 for more extensive sequencing. So processing of an arbitrary sample would be expected to cost around $8000. Lower costs may noted generally, but these are for mass production levels of human-specific tests not generally doing significant sequencing work; these method are not appropriate for samples collected in the wild (ancient DNA³) or for species identification and characterization. This is beyond my Sasquatch budget because you will never get there with just 1 or 2 samples. Even the SGP tried to get by with 3 for discovery, and failed, and it is questionable how much they did given the going rates for lab time during that project.

    If a working laboratory can be assembled for between the cost of 1-2 samples, then any number of samples can be processed for the cost of reagents and sequencing - also needs to be determined. The cost of reagents and sequencing is the bulk of the cost for using a DIY science lab, membership in the lab is likely to be relatively trival in the short term.

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3 - The term ancient DNA applies basically to any DNA not extracted directly from a donor under laboratory conditions and immediately stabilizd for analysis.