BioCurious
= "a complete working laboratory and technical library to cheaply access equipment, materials, and co-working space / meeting place for citizen scientists, hobbyists, activists, and students". [1]
URL = http://biocurious.org/
Description
"Get ready for “Citizen Science” to transform bioscience. In mid-October, 28-year-old Eri Gentry opened BioCurious, a nonprofit public-use biology laboratory in Sunnyvale, Calif., with 2,400 square feet of “hacker space for biotech.” Similar community labs are sprouting up elsewhere, too. Do-it-yourself biologists are setting up shop in garages, basements, and hacker spaces worldwide. Executive Director Gentry and five co-founders raised $35,000 for the BioCurious lab on Kickstarter.com (a site that enables anyone to raise money from the public for creative projects).
It all suggests we could start seeing more rapid progress in the biotechnology industry. Publications from USA Today to Nature have heralded the global rise of “biohacker” activities that include personal genome investigations, synthetic biology experimentation, and reverse-engineered research tools. AP journalist Marcus Wohlsen is one of several who have compared DIY biologists to the early code hackers who revolutionized personal computing. His 2010 book Biopunk casts Gentry and her cohorts as pioneers of a movement that is determined to democratize DNA and transform bioscience.
The so-called biopunks have loftier ambitions than building new iPhone apps or social media companies. They want to contribute to society by reengineering life itself, and they want to do it outside the walls of academia and industry. Community labs like BioCurious aim to lower the barrier to entry for biotech startups by providing shared access to costly tools and connections to like-minded partners." (http://www.forbes.com/sites/techonomy/2011/10/25/citizen-science-takes-off-could-community-labs-hatch-the-next-generation-of-bio-innovators/)
More Information
- Biohacking
- intro video: Community Biolabs