Amateur Hobbyists Are Creating Home-Brew Molecular-Biology Labs, but Can They Ferment a Revolution?
Amateur hobbyists are creating home-brew molecular-biology labs, but can they ferment a revolution?
$195–$1,000
$250–$2,000
MICROCENTRIFUGE
$60–$850
IMPROVISATION IS KEY
To do molecular biology on the cheap, biohackers have developed some creative workarounds: • for a $10 microscope, pop the lens o a webcam and stick it back on backwards. • for an $80 centrifuge, order the DremelFuge rotor and attach to a Dremel rotary tool. • for a free 37 ºC incubator, incubate tubes of E. coli in your armpit.
THE BIGGER TICKET
INCUBATOR
Some standard laboratory equipment such as fume hoods can get quite expensive, but one should not sacrifice safety for cost. For guidance on the necessary equipment, consult with local biohacker groups. Another option is to join the institutional biosafety committee at your local university or medical centre. These committees often have slots for nonscientists.
Prices are for used equipment
$100–$800
dubious about whether there is an extensive market for garage molecular biology. No one needs a PCR machine at home, and the accoutrements to biological research are expensive, even if their prices fall daily (see graphic). Then again, the same was said about personal computers, says George Church, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. As a schoolboy, he says, he saw his first computer and fell in love. “Everybody looked at me like, ‘Why on earth would you even want to have one of those?’” Carlson started his garage lab as something of a hobby, but he needed to do it without sapping resources from his lab at the University of Washington in Seattle. He bought equipment such as refurbished micropipettes — a staple in any molecular biology lab — and a used centrifuge on eBay. In 2007, fed up with grant applications and eager to spend more time working in his garage lab, he gave up his position at the university altogether. Carlson decided to follow up on work at the MSI. There, he had been part of a
$195–$1,000
$250–$2,000
MICROCENTRIFUGE
$60–$850
IMPROVISATION IS KEY
To do molecular biology on the cheap, biohackers have developed some creative workarounds: • for a $10 microscope, pop the lens o a webcam and stick it back on backwards. • for an $80 centrifuge, order the DremelFuge rotor and attach to a Dremel rotary tool. • for a free 37 ºC incubator, incubate tubes of E. coli in your armpit.
THE BIGGER TICKET
INCUBATOR
Some standard laboratory equipment such as fume hoods can get quite expensive, but one should not sacrifice safety for cost. For guidance on the necessary equipment, consult with local biohacker groups. Another option is to join the institutional biosafety committee at your local university or medical centre. These committees often have slots for nonscientists.
Prices are for used equipment
$100–$800
dubious about whether there is an extensive market for garage molecular biology. No one needs a PCR machine at home, and the accoutrements to biological research are expensive, even if their prices fall daily (see graphic). Then again, the same was said about personal computers, says George Church, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. As a schoolboy, he says, he saw his first computer and fell in love. “Everybody looked at me like, ‘Why on earth would you even want to have one of those?’” Carlson started his garage lab as something of a hobby, but he needed to do it without sapping resources from his lab at the University of Washington in Seattle. He bought equipment such as refurbished micropipettes — a staple in any molecular biology lab — and a used centrifuge on eBay. In 2007, fed up with grant applications and eager to spend more time working in his garage lab, he gave up his position at the university altogether. Carlson decided to follow up on work at the MSI. There, he had been part of a