Ginkgo BioWorks $235 synbio biobricks kit

[JonathanCline]

Surprised I didn't see mention of this yet. Has anyone tried it or
have it on their TODO list?

Ginkgo BioWorks is selling the BioBrick™ Assembly Kit for $235. A
mini-version of the iGEM kit. 50 reactions, so under $5 per. Quite
the bargain.

http://ginkgobioworks.com/biobrickassemblykit.html


## Jonathan Cline
## jcl...@ieee.org
## Mobile: +1-805-617-0223
########################

[4phl...@gmail.com]

The members of diybio-nyc brought it up a while ago. But it turns out you need some sort of business address to order that stuff. There should be a way to work something out but we're trying to keep everything legal and tidy.

I'd be delighted to hear if someone has ideas about using it their projects though.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

-----Original Message-----
From: JonathanCline <jnc...@gmail.com>

Date: Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:49:43
To: DIYbio<diy...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Ginkgo BioWorks $235 synbio biobricks kit

[Paul Anderson]

On 27-Jun-09, at 12:49 AM, JonathanCline wrote:

>
> Ginkgo BioWorks is selling the BioBrick™ Assembly Kit for $235. A
> mini-version of the iGEM kit. 50 reactions, so under $5 per. Quite
> the bargain.
>
>

Excuse my swedish but, HOT DAMN!:) I knew they were working on
something like this. Can anyone buy it?

---
Paul Anderson
wacky...@gmail.com
http://www.andersonloco.com

[Paul Anderson]

On 27-Jun-09, at 1:41 AM, 4phl...@gmail.com wrote:

> The members of diybio-nyc brought it up a while ago. But it turns
> out you need some sort of business address to order that stuff.
> There should be a way to work something out but we're trying to keep
> everything legal and tidy.
>

In all fairness, it's not that hard to start a business. In some
areas, even a corporation can be created in an afternoon for $400.

[Bob Keyes]

--- On Sat, 6/27/09, Paul Anderson <wacky...@gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Paul Anderson <wacky...@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Ginkgo BioWorks $235 synbio biobricks kit
> To: diy...@googlegroups.com
> Date: Saturday, June 27, 2009, 5:52 PM
>
>
> On 27-Jun-09, at 1:41 AM, 4phl...@gmail.com
> wrote:
>
> > The members of diybio-nyc brought it up a while ago.
> But it turns 
> > out you need some sort of business address to order
> that stuff. 
> > There should be a way to work something out but we're
> trying to keep 
> > everything legal and tidy.
> >
>
>
> In all fairness, it's not that hard to start a
> business.  In some 
> areas, even a corporation can be created in an afternoon
> for $400.

Actually, you can do it for much less. You don't even need a lawyer. I should write up a how-to on this. But jurisdictions that offer no or low-taxes and offer privacy tend to have higher yearly fees (those places being Nevada and Delaware in the US). Incorporating in an offshore 'tax haven' can be much more expensive (in the thousands, plus all sorts of annoying fees).

But having a corporation and a business address are different things, in terms of shipping. A corporation can be formed with a residential address as the address of the corporation. However, shippers and other entities may require that the delivery address be within a commercially zoned area, or that one has a zoning exemption, or some other restrictive and problematic requirement. Getting a UPS-Store mailbox may not help you. It really depends, the requirements that ginkyo bioworks has need to be more explicitly spelled out in order for me to give more information.

[Eugen Leitl]

On Sat, Jun 27, 2009 at 05:52:33PM -0400, Paul Anderson wrote:

> In all fairness, it's not that hard to start a business. In some
> areas, even a corporation can be created in an afternoon for $400.

I very much second that recommendation. Ltd. is even cheaper,
and works in the whole of EU. U.S. and offshoring could pick
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware_corporation as incorporation
form.

These are but suggestions, your mileage will vary depending on
location, goals and available funds. E.g. a nonprofit might be
a better incorporation form for a hackspace or public education
angle.

--
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
______________________________________________________________
ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org
8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

[Stacy]

On Jun 28, 6:19 am, Eugen Leitl <eu...@leitl.org> wrote:
> On Sat, Jun 27, 2009 at 05:52:33PM -0400, Paul Anderson wrote:
> > In all fairness, it's not that hard to start a business.  In some  
> > areas, even a corporation can be created in an afternoon for $400.

I did this. I set up an actual incorporated non-profit in order to
apply for grants. Sadly, it didn't matter. Companies that check this
sort of thing won't ship to a residential address. Articles of
incorporation, online verification with the IRS for the non-profit,
and a copy of a business license still wouldn't convince any company
that had the no-residence rules. Happily, other companies don't even
ask, so I assume it's simply the policy of some places and not an
actual federal regulation. Maybe this Ginkgo Bioworks place would be
more flexible.

[Bryan Bishop]

On Sun, Jun 28, 2009 at 8:12 AM, Stacy <stac...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> actual federal regulation.  Maybe this Ginkgo Bioworks place would be
> more flexible.

I am confused as to why everyone is talking about Gingko Bioworks in
the third person. Almost everyone who works there happens to be on
this mailing list. Couldn't we just wait for Tom to reply?

- Bryan
http://heybryan.org/
1 512 203 0507

[Jason Kelly]

> Happily, other companies don't even
> ask, so I assume it's simply the policy of some places and not an
> actual federal regulation.  Maybe this Ginkgo Bioworks place would be
> more flexible.

Great to see people excited about the BioBrick Assembly Kit, we
certainly are. Goal was to provide an all-in-one kit so people could
spin up on building BioBricks more quickly. The kit has all the
enzymes needed to do BioBrick assembly reactions along with best
practice protocols and support from folks here at Ginkgo for
debugging.

We offer the kit in partnership with NEB and they handle distribution,
so at this stage their policies would cover who can order the kit.
This might be able to evolve over time, we'll look into it.

On a related note, Ginkgo is offering a service for building BioBricks
for customers starting later this summer, BrickLayer:

http://ginkgobioworks.com/bricklayer.html

Haven't decided yet whether we'd mail to residential addresses. Would
depend on the laws as well as demand. It's not exactly DIY to have
someone else build you DNA, but it will be reliable :) Feel free to
ping me on/off list if you're interested.

Thanks!
Jason

[Tom Randall]

As the kit appears to contain simply the NEB restriction enzymes
needed to manipulate the biobricks, it would be useful to know how
many Units of each enzyme are in the kit. I cant find this information
either online or in the latest hard copy of the NEB catalog. Enough
for 50 rxns is a little vague and sounds like not too much. Bought
separately, based on the NEB catalog prices I have, at $58 for 10,000U
of PstI, $53 for 10,000U of EcoRI, $61 for 500U of SpeI, $63 for
3,000U XbaI and $63 for 20,000U of T4 DNA ligase (in each case the
minimum amount one can order ala carte from NEB) for $298 total it
might be more useful for a group of users to buy separately, put in a
box and call it a kit unless comparable amounts of each enzyme are
included in the advertised BioBrick Assembly kit. Does anybody know
these details, or have I just missed them? Would not want to buy it
just to find out these numbers.

[Austin Che]

> many Units of each enzyme are in the kit. I cant find this information
> either online or in the latest hard copy of the NEB catalog. Enough
> for 50 rxns is a little vague and sounds like not too much. Bought
> separately, based on the NEB catalog prices I have, at $58 for 10,000U
> of PstI, $53 for 10,000U of EcoRI, $61 for 500U of SpeI, $63 for
> 3,000U XbaI and $63 for 20,000U of T4 DNA ligase (in each case the
> minimum amount one can order ala carte from NEB) for $298 total it
> might be more useful for a group of users to buy separately, put in a
> box and call it a kit unless comparable amounts of each enzyme are
> included in the advertised BioBrick Assembly kit. Does anybody know
> these details, or have I just missed them? Would not want to buy it
> just to find out these numbers.

It's the smallest pack for each of the enzymes (i.e. the units you
just listed). The BioBrick kit is just the combination of the 5
other products you listed above. So you save 298-235=63 or 20% by
buying the kit vs each of the components separately.

Hope that helps.

[Mackenzie Cowell]

Plus you get more elaborate documentation: http://ginkgobioworks.com/support/

--
p: 231.313.9062
e: m...@diybio.org
tw: @macowell

[JonathanCline]

On Jun 28, 9:52 am, Jason Kelly <ja...@ginkgobioworks.com> wrote:

> Goal was to provide an all-in-one kit so people could
> spin up on building BioBricks more quickly.  The kit has all the
> enzymes needed to do BioBrick assembly reactions along with best
> practice protocols and support from folks here at Ginkgo for
> debugging.
>

> On a related note, Ginkgo is offering a service for building BioBricks
> for customers starting later this summer, BrickLayer:

Can you or others here give a couple examples of the kinds of devices
that have been created from this kit?

[ericz]

Definitely signed up.

cheers,
Eric