Biolumescent Plant Project

Science
#1

Hey guys,

Been working with Andreas in Europe on a biohacking project.

Recently the metabolic pathway with which Biolumenescent Fungi express their genes was discovered by a Russian team. We are going to order the DNA synthesized and transform it into Tobacco via agrobacteria. The project will cost roughly $2000 so we have been talking about ways to raise money.

My initial interest in this was due to a company called Glowing Plant, their project failed due to using genes from a bacterial system which was too energy intensive for the plants and the project wasn’t executed well.

Attached is the DNA we are going to have synthesized based on the paper on biolumenescent Fungi.

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#2

Do you want glowing zombies? Because this is how you get glowing zombies! :joy::woman_zombie::zombie:‍♂

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#3

This might be a better use of our genetics equipment:

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#4

… and maybe just maybe do something about hippies’ dogmatic stance against GMOs.

:rofl:

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#5

This sounds fun. With enough success maybe we could create external lamps for the space, or at least get some very interesting pictures of a member’s lungs.

Any chance you understand the modifications to shift the luminance towards red/infrared?

#6

i would love to be part of this. im not in the science area too much. want to be more involved

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#7

Couple of questions-

Transform it into tobacco as in into a tobacco plant? If you need plants/seedlings I might be able to acquire some. I grew up on a tobacco farm.

As far as fundraisers go you can always do a raffle or bazar if other groups from the DMS would be interested in donating items to help. You could give a presentation on your project to gauge interest (if it’s even allowed to ask) and see what happens!

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#8

Can we make glow-in-the-dark weed? That sounds like it would sell a lot better.

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#9

Thank you Michelle, very nice of you, we have Tobacco seeds, but would love to hear any ideas you have on raising money!

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#10

Raffles AND non profits are not compatible in Texas. A non profit is allowed 2 a year in Texas.

Those will be reserved for space wide events not Committee events.

Regards,

Steve Blanchard
Acting Treasurer

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#11

Thanks for that! I’m not from Texas so I’m still learning all the misc. laws. :blush:

Do you have any suggestions or ideas?

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#12

Silent auctions have worked really well and are within the guidelines of fundraising. If you’re interested I can talk to you about what CA did and how it all went down. It was a great success only a few months ago.

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#13

I am super into this!!

I’ll be there today helping out before work, will you be there? Idk if Josh will be but I can pass along the info if not.

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#14

(Also I’m sure your knees are lovely) :joy:

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#15

Is this a formerly ratified board decision?

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#16

Even if it’s not a formerly ratified board decision, it’s in the best interest of DMS to 1) control the number, and 2) use the limited number we are allowed by law in the best way we can.

#17

It would be nice if that were codified and posted for members to reference, thus my question.

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#18

Scott -

The PR Committee was looking at fundraising options.

One of their ideas was a weekly raffle on Tour night.

It was requested that Pure Tax look over the list of proposed fundraising options.

Raffles came back with the 2x annual reference. This was a legal issue, not a Board rule.

https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/divisions/financial-litigation/charitable-trusts/charitable-raffles-and-casinopoker-nights

Raffles are considered gambling in Texas.

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#19

I’ve looked into this issue before. Yes, raffles are gambling; but as a practical matter, the local district attorney and attorney general have the discretion to ignore it. When Texas gambling laws were rewritten in 1973, the State Bar proposal that was mostly adopted said this in the official commentary:

“Unhappily, these prohibitions apply literally to various forms of gambling that are usually condoned, e.g., matching coins in a coffee shop, church bingo games, and charity raffles. The difficulty in framing exceptions for socially accepted forms of gambling lies in the facility with which they may be used as loopholes by professional gambling promoters who are the target of the prohibition. Furthermore, the constitutional prohibition against the ‘establishment of lotteries,’ Tex.Const. art. III Sec 47, appears to preclude a statutory exemption for the gambling activities of churches and charities. Therefore, many socially accepted forms of gambling will be ignored at the prosecutor’s discretion, as under present law.”

So what I’m saying is that if we call our local district attorney, he/she doesn’t have a problem with what we’re doing, we can move forward on this if we want, and the risk would be mostly theoretical.

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