Michael Laufer

Michael Laufer (sometimes styled as Mixæl Laufer[1]) is the de facto leader of the open-source anarchist biohacking network, Four Thieves Vinegar Collective.[2][3][4] Laufer is notable for creating the EpiPencil, an open source alternative to the Epipen.[2][5]

Michael Laufer

PhD
Other namesMixæl Laufer
Known forBiohacking,
Open source medicine,
De facto leader of Four Thieves Vinegar Collective
Academic background
Alma materGraduate Center, CUNY

Education

Laufer has a Ph.D. in mathematics and physics from the CUNY Graduate Centre.[6]

Career

Laufer is the director of mathematics at Silicon Valley's Menlo College,[3] and a part time teacher of mathematics at San Quentin State Prison, California.[2] Laufer is also a Senior Research Fellow at the UNESCO Crossings Institute.[7]

In 2008 Laufer went to El Salvador where he saw hospitals that had run out of birth control medicine, he founded the Four Thieves Vinegar Collective shortly afterwards.[3]

Laufer publicly shared videos in 2016 that illustrated how to manufacture generic version of the Epi-Pen epinephrine auto-injector from components readily available to the public.[8][9]

Laufer is working on a DIY pharmaceutical chemical reactor that he calls the Apothecary MicroLab that will allow people to manufacture their own pharmaceuticals at home.[2] The first version is able to manufacture pyrimethamine, the same drug that in 2016 increased in price in USA from $13 to $750 in 2019.[8][10][11] Laufer's work is both about access to medicine and about the right to personal autonomy and information, seeking to undo a trend that has put healthcare decision-making in the control of financially motivated private actors.[3] Laufer believes that providing lifesaving medication to those in need justifies violation of intellectual property rights.[12] He is working to make it possible to manufacture the medications needed to treat HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, emergency contraception and abortion medication.[8][13]

In 2019 Laufer co-created a mesh-network sub-dermal implant that costs less than US$50, allowing humans to internally carry wireless routers.[14] Soon after, he had one implanted in himself.[14]

Laufer presented at the 2016 Hackers on Planet Earth conference.[13]

See also

References
  1. "Mixæl S Laufer Twitter Account". Twitter. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  2. Piller, Charles. "An Anarchist Is Teaching Patients to Make Their Own Medications". Scientific American. Retrieved 2021-12-03.
  3. Oberhaus, Daniel (July 26, 2018). "Meet the Anarchists Making Their Own Medicine". Vice. Retrieved January 10, 2022.
  4. "Was the EpiPen Hack Ethical?". KQED. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
  5. By (2016-09-22). "Should You Build Your Own EpiPen?". Popular Science. Retrieved 2021-12-03.
  6. "Menlo College Mathematician Michael Laufer Shoots to Fame with EpiPencil". Menlo College. 2016-10-04. Retrieved 2023-03-21.
  7. "People | University of Oregon-UNESCO Crossings Institute". unesco.uoregon.edu. Retrieved 2021-12-03.
  8. "Hackers Offer a DIY Alternative to the $600 EpiPen". IEEE Spectrum. 2016-09-19. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
  9. Livni, Ephrat (27 September 2016). "Hackers created a $30 DIY version of the EpiPen". Quartz. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
  10. Larson, Selena (2016-09-24). "Outrageous EpiPen prices lead some people to make their own". CNNMoney. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
  11. Leonard, Kimberly (23 Sep 2016). "EpiPen Alternative? Meet the $30, DIY EpiPencil". US News.
  12. Lehman, Peter G (Dec 2020). "Beyond chemistry: DIY medicine" (PDF). Chemistry in Australia. December 2020 - February 2021: 35 – via Royal Australian Chemical Institute.
  13. "Prescription Drug Recipe on the Internet". Healthline. 2017-11-02. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
  14. Oberhaus, Daniel. "This DIY Implant Lets You Stream Movies From Inside Your Leg". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.