BioCoder #4

Open Source Biotech Consumables

John Schloendorn

Introduction

Let’s face it, biotech startups are expensive. And they’re not just expensive, they’re also hard. Not just scientifically hard, but also unnecessarily, bureaucratically hard. Even if you’re somehow independently wealthy and can afford to plunk down $100k to get your own lab started (and you don’t mind getting looked at funny by your friends, “What? You can’t do biotech on $100k!”), it still takes a long time to find a seller of biological materials that’s willing to do business with an individual or newly formed startup company operating out of a basement. Both of these problems, cost and inaccessibility, are preventing the biotech revolution from taking off in the way the computer tech revolution took off when people started doing things in garages. We need to fix this.

First, I want to point out that there has been great progress on the lab equipment front. Access to a basic molecular lab is now obtainable and affordable both through hardware makers (e.g., OpenPCR) and through community equipment pools (Biocurious, Berkeley Biolabs). The most comprehensive list of these resources is probably Quitterie Largeteau’s biotech/hackerspace list. Getting access to higher-end cell culture and regenerative medicine gear still requires more creativity. But I can see the momentum now that will take us there with time.

In this article, I will highlight another front where there has been much less progress until now—the need for access ...