About This Project

Equitable access to biotechnology is a global challenge in low-resource settings where there is limited ability to source, safely transport and pay for expensive, temperature-sensitive reagents. Enzymes are the workhorse tools of biotech R&D. Can we turn our community lab into a hub of decentralized enzyme production/distribution and empower others to do the same worldwide with a step-by-step guide with best practices and starter tools?

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

While developed countries have made incredible progress in using biotechnology to combat disease, grow crops with less environmental impact and remediate toxic waste, the enormous potential benefits of biotech cannot be realized in low-resource settings where there is limited access to enzymes, the workhorse tools of biotech. If enzymes could be produced on-site in these settings using low cost materials and equipment it could jumpstart bio-based innovation where it is desperately needed to combat such global threats as climate change, pollution and disease. Distributed tools will lead to more distributed innovation and help jumpstart R&D in underserved areas of the world.

What is the significance of this project?

There have been several efforts (Open Bioeconomy, Reclone.org, FreeGenes) to democratize the practice of biotechnology through development of open-source reagents and protocols but more help is needed. Community biolabs represent an untapped resource for development of DIY and low-cost methodologies for production of R&D equipment and reagents for low-resource settings. They are a worldwide network of nonprofit biotechnology laboratory facilities that serve the public by providing low- or no-cost access for citizen scientists, educators, biotechnologists and students to learn and innovate in the biosciences. This project will create a replicable model to enable community labs to become hubs of manufacture and distribution of critical enzymes for biotechnology R&D.

What are the goals of the project?

We want to improve on the resources out there by taking them a step further and becoming a working node or hub for production and distribution of critical tools (enzymes). We have already started by obtaining collections of DNA from FreeGenes. First we will improve on the FreeGenes collection by moving into ready-to-use formats (expression vectors). Then we will optimize the use of the DNA to make the enzymes (production and purification). We will develop best practices for being a distribution node. Lastly we will document the entire journey and turn it into a guide for other labs that want to produce and distribute these tools, and provide them with the improved starter materials and protocols.