DIYBio crowdfunding campaign to conduct algae research for bioremediation and biopolymers

[cameron]

Can you help with a crowdfunding campaign for DIYbio research on algae bioremediation of the Salton Sea?

Friends,

As a member of the DIYBio community for a few years and an active member at Biocurious for the last two, I've been focusing part of my time on the development of opensource tools and protocols for algae research.  We are making slow but steady progress at Biocurious and we are publishing our information on our WIKI (also links to Google Group and other resources where we share information publicly).

Recently, a friend and I started a non-profit called Blue Nomad Foundation, which was spawned from the work at Biocurious.  Our mission is to fund research to develop technologies to use algae to bioremediate polluted water sources and use the biomass for biopolymer development and educate the public. Our plan is to fund the development of these technologies and make the IP freely available. 

We are putting together a crowdfunding campaign to raise money to fund initial research in DIYBio spaces.  We hope to provide resources for memberships, equipment and reagents to facilities which can define projects consistent with our mission.  As a passionate member of this community with a lot of time invested in it, I believe that demonstrating that we can work towards solving real global problems will go a long way towards allaying some of the public fears about our work.  Our goal is to raise $40k and gain visibility in the press and alert the public to this approach.   We also intend to raise more significant money from foundations down the road to fund projects with academic algae researchers.  At Biocurious, I've been working to integrate other projects with institutional labs and I think this effort with BNF can do the same. I'm very keen to open the pipes between institutions and DIYBio to created blended research projects (if you care to learn more, feel free to write me separately).

So, I'm seeking opinions from this community on ways that our non-profit can craft our crowdfunding campaign to be consistent with the community interests and help DIYBio achieve our goals.  FYI, we were thinking of ways that we can use the campaign to contribute more to the community.  One thought which Patrik D suggested was to hold a DIYBio camp down at the Salton Sea where we could go on site to do some extremophile bioprospecting and hold talks on bioremediation and research there.  We could also discuss our work at Biocurious on algae genetic engineering, the protocols we are using, and what we've learned to date.  FYI, the Salton Sea is where BNF will focus our initial algae bioremediation efforts and has a lot of interesting environmental challenges. 

Finally, I want to ensure that we reach our $40k threshold.  Do any of you have thoughts on how BNF could reach this goal so that we can give back to the community?  I'm open to all ideas!

Thanks!

Cameron 

[Patrik D'haeseleer]

Anyone have any feedback on this? This seems like a great opportunity for a global DIYbio collaboration.

- DIYbio hacker camp at the Salton Sea
- Open source algae hacking
- Maybe even naming some novel bacterial or Archaeal species!

Patrik

[Ravasz]

Hi,

I think this is an excellent project and I am happy to help if I can, but I also feel that currently it is not a good target for crowdfunding or DIYBio. Since its specific for the Salton sea, anyone not located there would have little interest in contributing to it.

However, I am certain that you could attract much attention locally: in LA or the bay area. Both capital and talented minds should be available there, but I am also certain that you are campaigning there already.

Maybe if you made a location independent, fun sideproject out of it, like the rainbow colored nannos or similar, that could get more support internationally.

[cameron]

Thanks guys. Your comments are well taken.  Let me see if I can clearly/concisely address some of these points.

Blue Nomad Foundation's Mission:   Develop opensource, freely distributable  technologies to use algae to bioremediate dirty/contaminated water sources and use the biomass to produce precursors to biodegradable biopolymers towards displacing petroleum-based plastics.

Funding Sources: We will start with a crowdfunding campaign, then pursue institutional and high net-worth individual contributions

Kinds of Research to be pursued:  Bioprospecting and testing of various strains of algae globally.  Metabolic engineering of species to enhance their productivity and develop feedstocks for biopolymers. Discover ways to apply the research in varied global environments.  Growth and production studies in toxic wastewater environments to learn more about how algae adsorb toxins. Study ways to separate the toxins from the biomass.

Where will this technology be applicable?  Globally.  Our intention is to fund research which will provide solutions to clean polluted water sources throughout the world and give locals a tool to generate an income stream by selling algae-produced feedstocks into the bioplastics industry.  We plan to work with international scientists, DIYBio'ers, and citizens who are interested to create an income stream from these feedstocks, while cleaning water along the way.

Why should the DIYBio community support our campaign?   I believe this has some interesting value propositions for DIYBio.  First, BNF wants to support and raise money for research in DIYBio labs/garages across the globe where citizen scientists are interested to work on projects consistent with BNF's mission.. Second, I believe that funding this kind of research in a DIYBio setting establishes an excellent image for our community and demonstrates how citizen scientists can work on real-world challenges and find real-world solutions through mass collaboration and openscience.  Third, our community needs to show how synthetic biology is not just about GMO foods, but rather finding powerful solutions to global/environmental challenges.  It's a story which helps all of us. BNF intends to push this aggressively in the press to help the DIYBio image.  Finally, I think there is a possibility to create DIYBio collaborations with professional institutions which should be valuable.

Why is BNF focusing on the Salton Sea in Southern California?  This geographic location is a wonderful starting point for research.  There is an environmental disaster in the making there with polluted water flowing in from Mexico.  It is a perfect place to grow algae with lots of sunshine and virtually free land.   California has a number of DIYBio labs forming which could work towards our mission.   However, BNF sees this location as only  a starting point. We would like to raise money to fund this research globally.  There are global citizens everywhere who want to see clean water and get rid of plastic.  BNF wants to translate this passion into support for the DIYBio community.  Lastly, as Patrik alluded to, the Salton Sea is an interesting place for bioprospecting.  It is in the middle of the desert, very hot in the Summer, has lots of geothermal activity, and the lake has a salinity of 4-5%.  A DIYBio camp there could be fun and bioprospecting might turn up something novel.

How can the DIYBio community help make this happen?  BNF needs a project to fund. We have been thinking of producing some kind of biopolymer for a biodegradable algae-based shopping bag.  However, we are not sure yet if this is achievable in our first project, especially since we are probably only going to raise a few tens of thousands of dollars for the initial research.  Does anyone have thoughts on what might be a good concrete initial project for our crowdfunding campaign?  Lastly, we are seeking input from the community on how we can spin this campaign in a way which makes it an attractive one to support.  We can't give away glowing plants, but we CAN bring money into our community and raise awareness about why this community is important and valuable.

I would appreciate any contributions from this list.  I am a very big supporter of DIYBio and want to see the community flourish.

Thanks

Cameron

[John Griessen]

On 02/04/2014 02:43 AM, cameron wrote:
> Lastly, we are seeking input from the community on how we can spin this campaign in a way which makes it an attractive one to
> support. We can't give away glowing plants, but we CAN bring money into our community and raise awareness about why this
> community is important and valuable.

I've supported some kickstarter.com campaigns and am preparing to do one of my own, and have thought about the
strong association of donations with premiums offered. T-shirts always come to mind. But, some people
are not going to wear T-shirts and still want something to brag that they are supporting. Folks that count for plenty of
donated money in the world are corporate job holders. I think many of those corporate types want premiums
that fit on their desk, and in some cases are wearable art. And of course, they absolutely need to donate
some of their pocket money to get vicarious thrills out of the fun we are immersed in.

Since I am an artist-engineer with wide interests, I've learned some of the process of coloring titanium by anodizing,
and think it could be just right for small artworks to give as premiums. Algae micro-photographs would translate very
well into anodized colorful premiums made in batches as in silk screen printmaking. I could keep the costs of such
premiums down to manageable levels using my familiarity with silk screen, sculpture patination, and some
CO2 laser action for resist cutting, and direct to metal ablating.

So let's talk about premiums promoting colorful algae, (and this kind of thing would be great for microbe micro-photographs too).

[Antony Evans]

Cameron,

The biggest issue I see with your proposal is that the project is not specific enough. You talk about many things you would do with the money, maybe choose one to start and have a lower target or come up with something very specific that the project funds will be used for. Ideally you have a reward that is very closely related to the output of that project that will be attractive to a broad group even beyond DIY Bio. Dino Pet is a nice creative example, or maybe a algae growing environment so people can grow spirolina at home or something like that. Kits and stuff are always nice, but to get to $40k you need something that will be of interest to people outside DIY Bio as well. T-shirts and art are nice, but you probably won't get to your target funds with just that.

Give me a call to discuss, I'd be happy to help (also check out the article in the last edition of biocoder for how we ran glowing plant).

Antony

On Sunday, December 8, 2013 9:17:45 PM UTC-8, cameron wrote:

[cameron]

Thanks, Antony and John. I'll be in touch.  FYI, I agree that this needs to be more project based.  I'm seeking ideas from the community and I'm hoping that the community sees value in supporting real science projects that can help us make some good contributions to the research.

Cameron