Biohackers on Netflix: What's Real in the Series and What's Science Fiction

Transparency: This is a fact check, not a TV review. Information about the series comes from Netflix, Wikipedia and press coverage; the context comes from legal texts, regulators and specialist media. All sources are listed at the end. The text mentions the basic premise of season 1 as described by Netflix and Wikipedia. Season 2 twists appear only in a clearly marked spoiler section. More on methodology

Key points

• Biohackers is a German Netflix series created by Christian Ditter, starring Luna Wedler and Jessica Schwarz. Two seasons, twelve episodes, 2020 and 2021. No third season has been announced.
• Real: payment chips under the skin, glowing plants and lab animals, the CRISPR gene-editing tool, gene therapies and DNA as a data store.
• Real, but illegal in Germany: gene-edited embryos. That is a crime under the Embryo Protection Act.
• Science fiction: a deliberately induced and then cured Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and a drug that selectively erases memories.
• Real-world biohacking looks very different: measuring, not editing.

What Biohackers is about (no spoilers)

Netflix describes it like this: a medical student enters a top German university on a secret mission to uncover a conspiracy linking a family tragedy to a visionary biology professor. The student, Mia (Luna Wedler), enrols at the University of Freiburg; Professor Tanja Lorenz is played by Jessica Schwarz.

Key facts according to Netflix and Wikipedia:

According to Wikipedia, season 2 was ordered a week after season 1 premiered. Netflix has not announced a third season (as of 14 Oct 2026).

Why now? In Google Trends for Germany, the series shows up in October 2026 as a sharply rising topic around the search term “Biohacking”. We did not find a concrete trigger such as a new season or a re-release.

Fact check: what actually exists

The payment chip under the skin: real

According to a review on Serienjunkies, Mia’s flatmate Ole implanted a payment chip in his wrist following a YouTube video so he could pay at the petrol station without a card. This exists: in 2022 the BBC reported on the British-Polish company Walletmor, which says it was the first to sell implantable payment chips. The NFC chip is a little bigger than a grain of rice and sits under the skin of the hand. It is not a mass product; at the time Walletmor said it had sold just over 500.

What the series leaves out: you do not implant one yourself from a YouTube tutorial. According to the BBC, the chip is injected after a local anaesthetic.

Glowing plants and mice: real

Flatmate Chen-Lu makes plants glow, and glowing mice appear in the series. Both are routine lab work. The green fluorescent protein GFP, originally from a jellyfish, has been used to mark cells and animals for decades and earned the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Even glowing houseplants are now a product: since 2024 the US company Light Bio has sold a self-glowing petunia after clearance by the US Department of Agriculture.

CRISPR in a shared flat: real, but not like that

The CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing tool exists, and it exists as a hobbyist kit, as MIT Technology Review reported in 2017. The same year, the US Food and Drug Administration explicitly warned against self-administering gene therapy products from do-it-yourself kits.

In Germany, the home lab is clearly regulated: under Section 8 of the Genetic Engineering Act, genetic engineering work may only be carried out in registered, notified or licensed genetic engineering facilities. A kitchen table is not one of them.

Gene therapy as a cure: real, but different

The professor in the series wants to cure people with a gene therapy. Approved CRISPR therapies now exist: in December 2023 the European Medicines Agency recommended Casgevy, the first CRISPR-based therapy, for beta thalassaemia and severe sickle cell disease. The patient’s own blood stem cells are edited outside the body and then returned. It only affects body cells; nothing is inherited.

Gene-edited embryos: it happened, and it is a crime in Germany

The core of the plot, a clinic implanting gene-edited embryos, sounds like fiction. It is only half fiction. Chinese researcher He Jiankui announced the birth of gene-edited twins in 2018 and was sentenced to three years in prison at the end of 2019 (Science).

In Germany, Section 5 of the Embryo Protection Act prohibits artificially altering the genetic information of human germline cells. The penalty is up to five years in prison or a fine, and attempting it is also a crime.

Genetically modified mosquitoes: real, but against disease

In the series, genetically modified mosquitoes play a threatening role. Such mosquitoes do exist, but with the opposite goal: the research consortium Target Malaria is working on so-called gene drives to suppress malaria mosquitoes. The consortium itself describes the work as still at an early stage.

DNA as a data store: real, and the series itself was the example

A nice detail outside the plot: for the launch, Netflix had the first episode of Biohackers stored in synthetic DNA. The work was done by Robert Grass (ETH Zurich) and Reinhard Heckel (TU Munich). According to TU Munich, about 100 megabytes fit into one picogram of DNA, a trillionth of a gram.

Fact check: what is science fiction

Spoiler warning: This section reveals twists from season 2.

A cured Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: fiction

In season 2, Mia is diagnosed with a deliberately induced Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease that is reversed with an ultrasound device. In reality, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is a prion disease for which, according to the MSD Manual, there is only supportive treatment of symptoms. Death usually occurs within six to twelve months. There is no cure.

A drug that erases memories: fiction

In season 2, a drug called “Oblivion” is being developed to erase a whole day of short-term memory. No such drug exists. The series invents it for the plot.

The pace: fiction

Perhaps the biggest difference from reality is speed. In the series, gene therapies, virus-carrying mosquitoes and cures appear within weeks. Casgevy was recommended by the EMA on the basis of studies in which the effect was observed in patients for at least twelve months. Even that is fast for medicine.

What real-world biohacking looks like

In the series, biohacking means rewriting genes in a lab. In everyday life, most people mean something far less spectacular: measuring their own body and building habits from the data. That is what this site is about.

• Wearables for sleep and recovery. I have worn a WHOOP since February 2024. What heart rate variability tells you, and what it does not, is in the HRV guide.
• Genetics without genetic engineering. In January 2025 I had a 23andMe genotyping test done. That is a SNP chip that reads selected positions in the genome, not a full genome, and it changes nothing. How to analyse the raw data yourself is covered in genome analysis with Claude and OpenClaw.
• Glucose sensors. Continuous glucose monitoring is the biohacking tool with the loudest marketing. For healthy people the benefit is neither shown nor disproven. Which sensors you can actually buy in Germany is covered in Dexcom without diabetes.
• Getting started without wasting money: Biohacking starter kit.

The difference from the series: none of this touches your genome, all of it is legal, and the worst that can happen is a subscription you do not need.

Verdict

Biohackers is invented drama on a surprisingly real foundation. Payment chips, glowing organisms, CRISPR and DNA storage really exist, and the series was advised by a Fraunhofer researcher. Gene-edited babies are, unfortunately, not purely a screenwriter’s idea either, but in Germany they are a crime. What is made up: the cure for a fatal prion disease, a memory eraser, and the speed at which it all happens. If the series makes you want to “biohack” yourself, start with a sleep tracker, not with gene scissors.

Sources

• Netflix, Biohackers: netflix.com/title/81011660
• Wikipedia, Biohackers (creator, renewal): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biohackers_(TV_series)
• Wikipedia (German), plot, cast, filming locations, scientific advice: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biohackers
• Fraunhofer IME, Dr. Ole Pless advises the series (German): ime.fraunhofer.de
• Serienjunkies, review of the pilot (payment chip, glowing plants; German): serienjunkies.de
• DerWesten, Luna Wedler on season 3 (2022, German): derwesten.de
• BBC, payment chip implants (2022): bbc.com/news/business-61008730
• Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2008 for GFP: nobelprize.org
• Light Bio, glowing petunia with USDA clearance (2024): prnewswire.com
• MIT Technology Review, biohackers and the FDA warning on DIY gene therapy (2017): technologyreview.com
• FDA, Information About Self-Administration of Gene Therapy: fda.gov
• Section 8 German Genetic Engineering Act (German): gesetze-im-internet.de/gentg/__8.html
• EMA, first gene-editing therapy (Casgevy), 15 Dec 2023: ema.europa.eu
• Science, He Jiankui sentenced, 30 Dec 2019: science.org
• Section 5 German Embryo Protection Act (German): gesetze-im-internet.de/eschg/__5.html
• Target Malaria, how gene drive works: targetmalaria.org
• TU Munich, Biohackers stored in DNA (2020, German): tum.de
• MSD Manual, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (German professional edition): msdmanuals.com

Not affiliated with Netflix. “Biohackers” is a Claussen+Putz Filmproduktion production for Netflix. As of 14 October 2026.