Now is the time of DIYbio/biotech Kickstarters?

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Kevin Chen

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Nov 5, 2014, 1:20:38 AM11/5/14
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Biodidact

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Nov 5, 2014, 2:05:31 AM11/5/14
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Cool! I didn't know about that last one. I will check it out! Kickstarter is not as easy as one would think though...obviously there is a lot of advertising that goes into it. We did have a Kickstarter last month but never advertised...not even to this group and we obviously failed. Lots of lessons learned. This is all wonderful though. I love that the we the people are taking back science in our own hands in the face of decreased science funding. Love it!

We are starting a biotech community lab in New Mexico. You can check out our website at biodidact.net.
We have already invested so much of our own money on expensive equipment so those DIY prototypes are more than appreciated.

We also have a small local campaign to help us purchase pipettes for our workshops. It is going slow though...not enough advertising I guess. Please check it out. Help us spread the news, we have a few days left. Here's the link:
 https://www.mainstreetcrowd.com/projects/DNA-barcoding-project/

Your feedback will be appreciated too if you have any time.

Thank you!


Prisca

Charles Vander Broek

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Nov 5, 2014, 6:45:39 AM11/5/14
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Thanks for the links!  Very, very cool stuff!

Dakota Hamill

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Nov 5, 2014, 11:43:40 AM11/5/14
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I didn't know about Chai's QPCR either.  Is that still run by Tito?  That's awesome everyone is having such great success!!!  A full lab for a few thousand dollars is looking more and more feasible.  Now we just need a $2,000 Mass Spectrometer and NMR!

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John Griessen

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Nov 5, 2014, 8:15:50 PM11/5/14
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On 11/05/2014 10:43 AM, Dakota Hamill wrote:
> Now we just need a $2,000 Mass Spectrometer and NMR!


NMR is more difficulty Dakota...

Dakota Hamill

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Nov 5, 2014, 8:19:50 PM11/5/14
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Haha yes it's a pipe dream for now. But  my $500 Ferrari isnt.  Body kit of a Ferrari, engine block and chassis of a Honda civic.  Then I just drive around and play recorded sounds of supercars.  So badass...

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John Griessen

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Nov 5, 2014, 8:23:48 PM11/5/14
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On 11/05/2014 07:19 PM, Dakota Hamill wrote:
> Then I just drive around and play recorded sounds of supercars. So badass...

But, the audio system to faithfully reproduce the exhaust note of a Maserati
or Ferrari would be $5K also, so do you really appreciate?

Will Sutton

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Nov 7, 2014, 3:21:47 PM11/7/14
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Here's a good writeup on this phenomenon: https://medium.com/backchannel/diybio-comes-of-age-4a5b15d1131f

The part about disruptive innovation is very keen, if you haven't checked it out the first chapter is worth reading, you'll learn among other things which industry most resembles Drosophila.

Will Sutton

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Nov 7, 2014, 3:26:15 PM11/7/14
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On Wednesday, November 5, 2014 1:20:38 AM UTC-5, Kevin Chen wrote:

Dakota Hamill

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Nov 7, 2014, 3:32:11 PM11/7/14
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good reads, I like the single well DNA Dart because #$%@ controls

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Koeng

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Nov 7, 2014, 3:58:37 PM11/7/14
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350 for a single well pcr machine...

Dakota Hamill

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Nov 7, 2014, 4:22:05 PM11/7/14
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But in all honesty I'm very happy for the people who are getting funded to make these cool new machines, it's the start of something awesome.  OpenTrons looks pretty sweet to me now and has grown on me after I keep re-watching the video.

In the future do you think it'll be able to pick up tubes / plates and move them around?  Or have cooled/heated racks?

John Griessen

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Nov 7, 2014, 4:46:15 PM11/7/14
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On 11/07/2014 03:22 PM, Dakota Hamill wrote:
>
> In the future do you think it'll be able to pick up tubes / plates and move them around? Or have cooled/heated racks?


The most openly published ones will, whether the originators do it or
follow on manufacturers...

Maria Chavez

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Nov 7, 2014, 4:52:43 PM11/7/14
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Awesome about a biotech space in NM!  Will you all be associated with the big hackerspace there, Quelab, at all?  I am in NM each summer for at least a week so I cant wait to check it out as a relocated to the bay area Santa Fe native.

-Maria

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Nathan McCorkle

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Nov 7, 2014, 5:06:34 PM11/7/14
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On Fri, Nov 7, 2014 at 12:58 PM, Koeng <koen...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 350 for a single well pcr machine...

Seems to me that it isn't a thermocycler, so I think that would mean
it also isn't capable of PCR.

Prisca M Tiasse

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Nov 7, 2014, 8:21:49 PM11/7/14
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Please do come check us out Maria. We are planning to team up with Quelab somehow. Because of the distance it may be a little more tricky but we'll make something work.

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Will Canine

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Nov 8, 2014, 2:27:40 PM11/8/14
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Thanks Dakota! :)

Emphatically YES to your the tube/plate manipulation and cooling/heating, in multiple ways.

First, we are working hard to make it easy to incorporate other open hardware automation modules into OpenTrons jobs. Basically, if you make a tool (anything, microscope, plate hotel, whatever you want) and incorporate USB or BLE communication + create a tool profile on Mix.Bio, people can easily add it to their automated workflow. We are really excited to work with all our Kickstarter backers/early adopters to build this out in a way that works for their development on the platform. 

Second, we already have prototypes of a tube gripper, plate arm (we are working with the uArm team in Shenzhen), temperature controlled racks, and a centrifuge. We will be releasing these first four modules in Summer 2015. 

Excited to work with you all! :)

Will 

Kevin Chen

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Nov 11, 2014, 8:34:14 PM11/11/14
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Alexey Zaytsev

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Nov 11, 2014, 9:38:08 PM11/11/14
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Smart Dart looks a bit like bullshit. They never even say what the
device actually does, they also do not explain how isothermal dna
amplification works, and that it's different (and more expensive) from
usual PCR. Since it does not require cycling, does it mean that the
device is just a vastly overpriced thermal block with Android control?
In this case, it sounds more like borderline fraud.

Open Trons looks really cool though, considering it's got reasonable
precision and they actually make the hardware open - I'd love to use
it for tedious stuff like serial dilutions.
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/diybio/CAOGmcZeMk7EURV9MoMoMmwHuMdVh%3Dun8sFDn1sopb9HnNpyHSg%40mail.gmail.com.

Dan

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Nov 12, 2014, 2:53:53 AM11/12/14
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I thought isothermal PCR doesn't require a thermal cycler. 

LAMP is an isothermal nucleic acid amplification. In contrast to the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology in which the reaction is carried out with a series of alternating temperature steps or cycles, isothermal amplification is carried out at a constant temperature, and does not require athermal cycler.

Dan

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Nov 12, 2014, 3:06:42 AM11/12/14
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Whoops they never called it a thermal cycler. It just heats to 65 C for an hour and must have a way to read turbidity or use a dye to see if it's a positive result.

> On Nov 11, 2014, at 6:37 PM, Alexey Zaytsev <alexey....@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/diybio/CAB9v_DHnXEYO6rsNz0Lk%3DSLJgrUQ31xy5JFR_yA35bt%3DQXNhYQ%40mail.gmail.com.

Will Canine

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Nov 12, 2014, 1:15:10 PM11/12/14
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Thanks Alexey!

Would love to work with you! We are only halfway to our goal right now, and need to get the full $100,000 to get any of them made (thats 20 more robots!). It would be amazing if folks from the DIYBio community backed us -- get yourself a professional quality yet affordable, open-source lab robot! 

Thank you!

Will 

Shaun Moshasha

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Nov 12, 2014, 2:48:51 PM11/12/14
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Just FYI, eppendorf will accept broken pipettes from any manufacturer and give you credit towards new pipettes, so go scrounge around the universities/labs and see if you can pick up some of those!
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