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 wants to find simple ways to produce emergency contraceptives and common medications for HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C.[8]

In 2019 Laufer co-created a mesh-network sub-dermal implant that costs less than US$50, allowing humans to internally carry wireless routers.[13] Soon after, he had one implanted in himself.[13]

See also

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