[Noisebridge-discuss] Another DIYbio thread!

Josh Perfetto josh at snowrise.com
Mon Mar 30 22:29:57 UTC 2009


Hello all at NB,

I helped the DIYbio group with the experiment over the weekend, and would
like to provide some information on the current situation & thoughts on
future relations.

The experiment which was begun over the weekend is essentially the ³hello
world² of synthetic biology: transforming a plasmid containing the GFP gene
into E. Coli, so that the bacteria will fluoresce under UV light.  It is
very basic and many of the materials used in this experiment are from a kit
that is routinely used in high school biology labs.  There are materials in
this kit that you shouldn¹t ingest like a Calcium Chloride solution which
you shouldn¹t ingest, but doesn¹t pose a particularly great safety risk, and
I am sure there are many liquids and other objects at NB that you shouldn¹t
ingest either.  There is also a laboratory strain of E. Coli in the kit (not
the same as the pathogenic strains you often hear about causing food
contamination).  This should actually be safe for people with normal immune
systems to ingest, though there should be no reason for anyone to do this,
and the closed culture tubes sitting in a dedicated fridge should pose no
risk to anyone.

I helped the group create this safety guidelines & protocol page
https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Noisebridge_Lab_Safety_and_Ethics_Page .  I
believe these guidelines & protocols suffice for the current ³hello world²
experiment, though not necessarily all work going forward.  If you look at
the bottom, I pointed out that NB does not have proper hazardous materials
processes or licenses in place, and therefore I believe that these materials
should not be brought into NB at this time.  I also just updated your Safety
wiki page to link to the lab safety page as well.

I do have some thoughts and concerns with things moving forward which are
really just coming from myself (not representing the entire SF DIYbio group
here), but this seems like a good time to share them.

First as others have pointed out there is clearly some communication
problems between these two groups, and I think the idea of making Praveen an
ambassador would be excellent.  I can¹t really play this role as I¹m not
able to regularly attend your meetings and am not that familiar with NB.

But secondly here¹s some thoughts on NB/DIYBio.  As I mentioned above, the
experiment the group is currently doing is really basic, and NB has been
very generous in letting this group use its space.  I think there¹s going to
be a limit though in how much the group is going to be able to achieve in
this current environment.  I¹ve only visited NB twice, and what I¹ve seen is
an awesome bunch of shared hardware hacking equipment, shared table space,
some storage space, and everything is totally jam packed :)  That¹s not that
different than a bio lab, except that the shared equipment is rather
different as well as the types of surfaces.  We¹ve seen the space issues
just a single fridge has brought, but such a fridge is just one small part
of common lab equipment.  I really like the environment and group governance
systems that NB has setup, and I think DIYbio could benefit a lot from this,
as well as the proximity to all of the other work going on at NB (there is a
lot of hardware hacking needed as well for biology).  I just think that at a
point, a larger amount of dedicated physical space is going to be required
for equipment storage, safety equipment (fume hood/bio safety cabinet), safe
storage of reagents, etc.  NB wouldn¹t be what it is if it didn¹t have room
for all the equipment it currently has.

I¹m throwing this out there now to get your take on this and see what the
interest level is in potentially creating such a space if you were to expand
(can¹t really see how it could be done without expanding given the current
size of the space).  If there might be interest it would be good to figure
out what it might take (i.e. there would have to be X new members to support
the space financially).  If more involved work was to take place at NB, then
it probably would also be necessary to figure out how to safely store
chemicals that are much more dangerous than those being discussed at
present, hazardous waste disposal processes & permits, necessary segregation
of activities, etc.

I think part of the problems being experienced is because SF DIYbio is
currently in a bit of a neitherland in terms of its home and needs to
eventually pick a location and settle down.  The group is currently looking
at a number of options, of which NB is one, and if NB is to become the home,
then eventually this relationship needs to become more formalized (with
DIYbio members becoming NB members etc).  If another location becomes the
physical home, I think there may still be many interesting opportunities for
the two groups to collaborate on projects.  And regardless, NB has been very
generous with its space while this all gets worked out, and I hope everyone
recognizes this.

-Josh
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