Aaron James Traywick was an American businessman and life extension activist in the transhumanism and biohacking communities. He sought to develop gene therapies to make inexpensive treatments available for incurable conditions such as AIDS and the herpes simplex virus. His lack of any medical training and his unconventional methods—such as broadcasting an associate injecting himself with an "untested experimental gene therapy", then later doing the same to himself in an onstage public demonstration—drew widespread criticism.