New German Netflix series: 'Biohackers'

An express train rushes almost silently through a summertime mountain landscape. Suddenly a woman in a large compartment gasps for breath, opens her eyes in shock and faints. While some passengers reanimate her, others have difficulty breathing, too, and drop to the ground. Unnoticed, a deadly, contagious disease spreads throughout the compartment.

The newly launched series Biohackers is not about a pandemic, but scenes like the one described above gave Netflix and the production team pause. Instead of releasing the six-part series at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in late April as originally planned, they pushed the date to August 20.

"We didn't want to fuel fear or encourage conspiracy theories so we moved the release to a later date, hoping that people would know more about the disease and could better distinguish between fact and fiction," said director Christian Ditter, who previously directed the US Netflix series Girlboss.

Making God 'obsolete'

As people worldwide struggle with the coronavirus crisis, the Netflix series provides food for thought: "What happens when regular folks are confronted with things that are bigger than they are?" said Ditter, who also wrote the script.

The series explores how far scientists are allowed to go, and where the boundaries are drawn.

Biohackers tells the story of a medical student named Mia, and her ruthless professor, Tanja Lorenz.

"We are making God obsolete," the idolized star lecturer tells her students. Synthetic biology has allowed her to declare war on genetic hereditary diseases she aims to annihilate in the womb. Lorenz does not only carry out experiments at the university, but also in a private lab. Mia seems to know what she is up to at that lab — the two share a secret that is slowly revealed over the course of the series.

Genetic optimization

Christian Ditter had the idea for the story after he asked a few scientist friends what kept them awake at night. He expected they would list artificial intelligence or climate change, but they answered: synthetic biology. So that is what Ditter began to look into.

"It's almost like using Lego bricks," when humans become creators, said Ditter. Synthetic biology combines molecular biology, organic chemistry, engineering science and engineering technology and allows the construction of cells with new properties and functions.

Synthetic biology can create completely new products that could be helpful in developing new drugs, bio fuels and tailor-made materials. It could also simplify and speed up existing processes — like multiplying vaccines.

However, in particular when it comes to the human genome, it is also a chance to tamper. Genetic engineering means experimenting: If you alter a gene, what are the negative effects going to be? While the human genome has been decoded, it still hasn't been understood.

Shining mice and magnetic fingers

Scientists aren't the only ones attracted by the sector, as becomes clear from the series' title, Biohackers. Thanks to a genetic tool discovered in 2012 that works like scissors, even private individuals can edit genes — and the series has quite a few of those hackers.

Jasper, the professor's assistant, suffers from an incurable hereditary disease that he tries to alter. Mia's roommate makes plants glow and adds meat flavor to vegetables. Another roommate implants various tools in his own body, including magnets in his fingers.

Scientists accompanied the filming

Doctors and scientists advised the series' producers and the actors. "The more dramatic a situation was, the more sober and objective the scientists' reaction," said Ditter, whose wife is a doctor. "It was important to me to show that."

Ole Pless, a molecular biologist at the renowned Fraunhofer Institute, was one of the scientific advisors. He was pleased with the series and recognized his input, he said in an interview on the Netflix press portal. "It is scientifically correct," Pless said.

Biohackers may be about criminal, illegal human experiments, but nonetheless director Ditter has great respect for research. "Scientists are the new superheroes," he said, adding that, the series also shines a light on the favorable sides of synthetic biology, which allows lives to be saved at the end of the first season.

Ditter, who met many passionate scientists in the course of his research and filming, said the series is about more than mere fiction. "When the coronavirus crisis took hold, it was immediately clear to me that the smartest people on the planet will focus on solving this somehow. They will figure it out," he said.