Team:UCSC/DIY

DIY Biotech Lab Visit



   The bustling Do-It-Yourself biotechnology community has been grown rapidly in recent years as bioengineers and synthetic biologists have decided to take biological research, testing, and experimentation into their own hands. Focused on open-science innovation, the DIY biotech community is a result of the plummeting costs associated with conducting synthetic biology projects. The DIY movement excites our team because it represents a similar transition to that which occurred with the computing industry, in that substantial cost reduction allowed for universal access to computers. Once the core technology becomes accessible to individuals, rather than just corporations or research institutions, a wave of innovation follows suit as groundbreaking technologies arise out of garages (such as Amazon, Hewlett Packard, Google, Apple). We feel a similar trend is on the verge of taking the synthetic biology industry by storm.

   With the design and building of our autonomous bioreactor underway, we now had a personal stake in the DIY biotech movement. In order to better understand how DIY biotech was being implemented in the real-world, we reached out to BioCurious, Silicon Valley’s ‘Hackerspace’ for biotech. Their mission? “We believe that innovations in biology should be accessible, affordable, and open to everyone. We’re building a community biology for amateurs, inventors, entrepreneurs, and anyone who wants to experiment with friends.” A well-loved member of the community, Biocurious’ eccentric project line consists of diverse projects such as building a Bioprinter, re-purposing a microscope, and producing vegan cheese. Given their popularity around the community, their coverage in sources as notable as Scientific American, and their home in the core of the growing DIY Biotech community, we excitedly filled up the car and headed over to revered Silicon Valley to meet them in person.

   When we arrived we were greeted by a friendly group of regulars, some who had been with the lab for years and some who had begun only weeks before. With PPE covered scientists working industriously in the background, we gathered around a large meeting table to begin our interview. Once we began the interview, the term DIY biotech immediately resonated with the group. We were interested to discover that they had arrived at a very similar conclusion as we had. They described how the costs of equipment necessary to conduct synthetic biology projects has rapidly dropped in recent years, falling from prices that originally could only be afforded by large research institutions. When asked what the driving force is behind the growing DIY movement, they attributed it to the accessibility of these technologies. Democratizing science, as they put it, puts these technologies in the hands of any with the ambition to utilize it. We also briefly touched upon how the expanded accessibility to synthetic biology tools would allow for innovation in areas salient to the public, such as environmental degradation or artwork, which could show the public a different, more positive perspective of GMOs. Following the interview, the group allowed us to sit in for their weekly meeting, engage in project discussion, and even explore around the lab. We all truly enjoyed and greatly appreciated the visit, and we thank the BioCurious team for their hospitality, optimism, and vision for a more accessible future.