DIY Bio

Laurel documents and shares his perspective of the many ways DIYBIO empowers communities around the world. He believes that making science more accesible to the public is crucial to expanding and developing research on such topics as #Neurosciences #Genomics #GMOs #Agriculture #Nanotech #AI #SynBio #BioDesign #BioCommons #Biomaterials #OpenSource #BioSensors and so much more. ''The future is NOW and it's about designing new biological paradigms''.

Eric’s reason for getting into biotech was his grandmother. She was diagnosed with a rare prion disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, when he was 9 which sparked his interest in genetics and infectious disease. Growing up in the rural part of Illinois, Eric was drawn to the DIY spirit by building dams and forts, which progressed into electronics, engines and tech. His father really forced him from a young age to DIY fix everything first by holding the flashlight for him, which progressed to Eric turning the wrench himself. He hopes that just as the personal computer sparked revolutions in tech when it entered the hands of the public, we can achieve the same in biotech and STEM education by bringing the lab closer to the people.

Patrik D’haeseleer is a mild mannered bioinformatician by day, mad scientist by night. Having gotten into systems biology and synthetic biology via EE and CS, he jumped on the opportunity to learn the wetlab side when he heard about DIYbio. He’s been with BioCurious since they opened, and founded Counter Culture Labs in Oakland. He is also one of the main instigators behind the DIY BioPrinter, Ghost Heart, DNA Daiquiri, Jello Shot Electrophoresis, Vegan Cheese, Open Insulin, and more.

Maria is a biohacker and project manager. A new Board Member at BioCurious, in the past 4 years she has organized our events, classes and community projects. She is also a Board Member of Real Vegan Cheese, an open source project to create a synthetic cheese from genetically modified yeast. She is an adviser to the Latin American Network of BioHacker Spaces. She has been a leader on two iGEM teams, in 2014 and 2015, and is a member of multiple community lab science projects. Most recently she joined the Open Insulin project to create an open-source form of insulin.

Anthony Di Franco works at the intersections of complex adaptive systems and computing and focuses on democratizing access to technology, decentralizing infrastructure, and increasing the agency of individuals and communities. He is a co-founder and board member of Counter Culture Labs, a group of biohackers in Oakland, where he founded the Open Insulin project. In addition to working on Open Insulin, he is currently pursuing computer science research on declarative programming with uncertain information with the goal of making software easier for many more people to create and use.