Democratizing Science - What can we do?

[Josiah Zayner]

I have been feeling a little angry lately because it seems like the ability for DIY Scientists to accomplish things is still difficult. This is noticeably seen through a lack of Scientific publications or data generated by us.

People in DIY Bio seem to be working towards something that doesn't seem possible because of the lack of resources, knowledge and tools.
Papers, plasmids and strains that would be dirt cheap if the whole system wasn't run by profiteering gluttons($65 for a plasmid, seriously addgene? $200 for a strain at atcc).
Academic scientists sit by and use the phrase "open science" as a motto of apathy. How long would publishers survive if scientists stopped citing and publishing in their journals? Or refused to pay publishing fees? And just posted data to their website instead? DIYers remain with no access.

At The ODIN(http://the-odin.com), I have been trying to provide cheap prices and single researcher size quantities to DIY Scientists to allow them to do experiments. After lots of contemplation, I want to move away from my job as a Scientist at NASA because I think big things can happen in DIY just like what came of the computer hackers in the 90s. I want to help that stuff happen by creating more resources and tutorials for people.

This is where I need your help.

In the next few months at The ODIN, we have plans to release a Codex of plasmids and bacterial strains(yeast maybe?) for cheap. We want people to have the resources they need. Sign-Up at http://wildtypevsmutant.com and let me know what you are looking for or need.

We are also planning a crowdfunding campaign to take cutting edge genetic engineering tools like CRISPR and make them accessible physically, intellectually and financially. We might be looking for some beta-testers soon. Again, Sign-Up at http://wildtypevsmutant.com to keep updated. (Also, let me know what you think of the video)

I think that until genetic engineering arrives in many homes, what we do will just be scary and misunderstood. At The ODIN, we want to create a conversation around "Why do people think mutants are bad when they are here to save us?", i.e. Wildtype vs Mutant.

I appreciate all the support people on the list have given The ODIN so far and I hope to continue to provide to the community through biting commentary and ad hoc Science.

Finally, to make DIY more successful get involved if you aren't already. Teach classes at your local hackerspace, if you can't, then write tutorials online(I would be glad to host them on The ODIN), mentor other DIYers or if you need a mentor contact me!

There is a little ways to go before DIYers can accomplish cutting edge Science so let's make this thing work, together.

Josiah Zayner, Ph.D.
NASA Bioengineering Scientist
The ODIN CEO

[Alex]

The big deterrent for me has always been cost. It's hard when
everything that you do requires expensive equipment and then, on top
of the expensive equipment, to make use of it you need to buy another
$90 this and $50 worth of that and $100 this that everything else for
every few times you want to use it. Oh, and in case you can manage
all of that, you'll also have to befriend a local university or
business or something just so you can get shipments of certain things.

It'd be great if this could all be made a little more accessible!

-Alex

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[Alex]

Also, I think it's been a long time since I've checked out The ODIN.
It looks like it's got some awesome stuff!

-Alex

[Gordana Ostojic]

Question: what about regulations? It seems that you need special clearance to work with GM. Are you going to be in legal trouble for selling CRISPR kit?

Advice: Do not leave academia. You can do everything that you want to do there and people will pay more attention if you have a nice title (aim for tenure).

Regarding the GM, I think the main problem is not GM but our lack of knowledge and instrumentation to monitor and control living organisms. When we are able to measure and understand cells/organisms in real time in a big organism (means measure all important expression proteins at desired points inside the body) and develop a method to control them, then the fear will diminish.  So 50-100 years.  

[Josiah Zayner]

No regulations in the US regarding genetic modification at home. Alot of companies sell CRISPR kits and as far as I can tell there is no licensing agreement occurring.

Thanks for the advice but kindly, I will not listen to it. One cannot do whatever they want in academia, they can only do whatever the people who are paying them or giving them grants or publishing them, want. It is not so much about having attention as it is accomplishing things and building things.

[Koeng]

I've found that my biggest challenge to actually cloning DNA at home is lack of efficient competent cells that are easy to make. When making comp cells for cloning is as hard as my actual cloning, and I can only use them once, it becomes simply a hassle to do anything at home.

Do you have a solution to this? Such as some cheap small-quantity comp cells that would be shipped to houses. Or a list of friendly companies to do it, I have personally found lucigen cells very satisfactory ( http://www.lucigen.com/E.-cloni-10G-and-10GF-Chemically-Competent-Cells/ ) and their subcloning grade has been good enough for me in simple clonings. If they, or a similar company, did a small amount of highly competent cells for a low price, that would definitely accelerate my science as much any plasmid would. 

-Koeng

[Josiah Zayner]

Koeng, I think I have a solution for this in lyophilized competent cells. I still have some testing to do. Will get back to you on that.

JZ

[Jaime Sotomayor]

I don't know if people here know our company Arcturus BioCloud, but we began because we also found the lack of access to resources and the high prices a problem. We've been working for a while and have created an online platform for genetic engineering microbes. Our users don't need to know too much of biology and neither purchase equipment. Our first customers built genetically modified E.Coli that expressed GFP and other interesting proteins. It cost them $80 per experiment, they saw the process done online and then got their physical product delivered to them. No need to buy competent cells, reagents nor equipment, and no need to understand protocols. Today we are working with the Open Insulin Group to make a more affordable way to produce Insulin. If you are interested in developing new constructs, please can contact me at ja...@arcturus.io or signing up on our platform. Love to help more people do science!! Feedback is also welcome. 

[Elisabeth Steel]

The discussion in this thread led by Josiah is exactly what has drawn me to DIY bio. I am a PhD candidate in Biomedical Engineering at Wayne State University. For going on 12 years of my career in academia, I've seen bright individuals get their PhDs or newly minted junior professors slave to this system of researching topics that *might* get them funding. The suggestion to stay in Academia and shoot for gaining tenure, while may sound like a supportive comment, is easier said than done. In my opinion and experience, continuing down that road ends in me running myself into the ground, not having enough time for my children, and inadvertently wreaking havoc on my marriage. My passion is biology and engineering, the future is so bright but the finding climate in academia is bleak beyond words. That's why I intend to take advantage of local resources on campus and launch a biotech hacker space in Detroit. (Actually, in Farmington Hills, halfway between UM Ann Arbor and Detroit, where I live, so we'll call it southeast Michigan to be honest haha).
Citizen science is where it's at and I want to join the movement in rebelling against this repressive environment in academia and industry, we must band together and take STEM back for the betterment of humanity and not just focusing on profit-oriented projects.

If anyone reading this is in the Southeast Michigan area, and is interested in joining STEAM Here & There, I'd love to talk more. I'm in the process of preparing my pitch for a competition at Wayne State in October. Those funds and legal services I already have free access to will be used to file a 501(c)3 to get the STEAM Here & There proverbial show on the road. We envision having a biotech hackerspace in a location easily accessible to the community, with a mobile unit that will travel about the Southeast Michigan area bringing pop-up science and tech events to schools and neighborhoods who otherwise would not have access to these resources.

Regarding competent cells, Josiah, have you made these before at work? Or are these your first try ever at home? I used to be the lab manager in Dr. Allen Liu's lab at UM in Mechanical Engineering. His passion is synthetic biology. I've made competent BL21(DE3) (for protein expression) and DH5(alpha) which may be what you're working on. I would be happy to converse about troubleshooting! I know our first few batches when Allen started his lab at UM after moving from Scripps was that we needed to snap freeze. Do you have LN at home? If not, we used to out dry ice in absolute ethanol to get a solution cool enough for snap freezing!

[Gordana Ostojic]

Hi Elisabeth, 

Yes, I am aware that tenure is hard; however I am not sure that being scientifically productive in DIY is easier. 

It is a smart call to exploit the campus resources, that will make your job much easier. Big uni (in my experience) have more stuff than they can use. 

So sorry about your marriage, support can mean a world for long hours and bad reviews. Good luck with everything.

[Elisabeth Steel]

No need to say "sorry about your marriage!" My marriage is fantastic and I have an extremely supportive husband. I'm just saying that I have observed others, in all lines of work that require long hours, have difficulty in finding life balance.

I think that you make a valid point that it will be difficult in either path to be productive. I also like upholding the ideal that there might be an alternative for some people. I think that people should follow their passions and seek to fulfill life dreams. Scientific production will be a natural byproduct of performing work and research in an area that I feel motivated to explore in a supportive environment. The funding climate is tough. My university doesn't allow us to accept crowdsource funding which is why an indie lab sounds appealing. I'm sure if our lab had a grant, I would have a different perspective.

[John Griessen]

On 09/06/2015 03:36 PM, Elisabeth Steel wrote:
> The funding climate is tough. My university doesn't allow us to accept crowdsource funding which is why an indie lab sounds appealing. I'm sure if our lab had a grant, I would have a different perspective.

I'm doing some infrastructure to build low priced, high performance small footprint lab gear products. Meanwhile,
are you near a bio hackerspace?

[Elisabeth Steel]

One of my main motivators in developing a biotech hackerspace and mobile science education lab in the southeast Michigan and Detroit area is to bring ideas, information, events, tech toys/equipment into the community to children and families, young adults, who otherwise would not have the resources or access to science. Michigan needs to fill hundreds of thousands of jobs in STEM fields in the next few years and then beyond, but we don't have a resident population that is producing enough graduates in STEM for companies to draw from. I feel that bringing the DIY movement and ideals into the mix make these fields more accessible to the average person. I want to bring science into the community rather than bringing the community to the university for example. Call me a science pusher =P

[Elisabeth Steel]

That's awesome!

There are no biotech hackerspaces in the SE MI area that I have found yet that are not urban farming related.

[John Griessen]

On 09/06/2015 04:26 PM, Elisabeth Steel wrote:
> urban farming related

Austin TX has some urban farmer hobbyists and some product-farmers that
grow mycelia into shapes for packing material and furniture and art volume
that is light weight. The hackerspaces are robot focused though.

[Tim @ Backyard Brains]

Hi Elisabeth,

Backyard Brains is based in Ann Arbor and has done a lot of DIY-Bio in the all hands active makerspace. 

Consider us a resource!

Tim

[Marc Dusseiller]

moi moi,

it's nice to see this discussion... how it goes from Democratization to CRISPR and continues on the STEAM and education.

I just want to direct you to this book on "Open Science"

http://hackteria.org/media/oshw-geek-diplomacy/

Greetings from Yogyakarta!

m

[Josiah Zayner]

Thanks for the tips Elisabeth.
I think one of the big detractors of DIY Bio and Science is that there has not been much accomplished yet but that is also the great boon!
It means that there is so much one can do to contribute.

I know in my personal experience it is really scary to leave behind academia because everyone in academia follow that path like a cult and are willing to endure poor pay and long hours to prove how much they love their job. What they don't tell you is that you can love what you do and be paid well and not need to work long hours to prove something.

Scientists are told that it's not as _pure_ to work in the commercial Scientific industry but why? Those in industry are the people who are actually integrating Scientific knowledge into our world.

The problem lies in that the successful academic people don't want anything changed because they want to keep their success and there is no simple way for someone to become successful. I can't just train and score more goals. It is probabilistic and stochastic.

These things need to be changed and most people know that but people are afraid, and resources are lacking. For someone in a Ph.D. program it takes alot of work and alot of risk. When you have a Ph.D., monetarily this could be tens of thousands of dollars a year. A number of people have emailed me asking why I would leave my job.

The answer is that sometimes we need to look beyond ourselves and see that maybe what I can do is great but what 1,000 trained people can do is much greater.

JZ

[Elisabeth Steel]

Wow, thank you John, Tim, Marc, and Josiah for your discussion comments! 

Tim, my dissertation is centered around designing a conductive composite for nerve regeneration! One of the other studies in our lab uses electrophys experiments for the animal studies! I am limited to in vitro work but am a huge proponent of the importance of functional in vivo testing of the nerve conduits we design! I am so excited to read about Backyard Brains! TOO cool! Thank you for offering your assistance as a resource! I will surely be in contact as I move forward! 

Josiah, I love your commitment and ideas. I stand in solidarity!

Marc, I am totally checking out hackteria. I am building my own electrical stimulation equipment and maybe there will be something on there that will help!