Biology Club @ Makespace

Adrian Filip (Ottawa Bio Sci) joined us remotely to discuss a low cost, optical density sensor for measuring bacterial growth made from 3D printed parts and an Arduino. Ottawa Bio Sci are a group of bio enthusiasts from all walks of life, who undertake bio projects and create bio equipment. You can check out Adrians youtube video explaining the build here . Tonight at Biomaker Meetup @cammakespace , Adrian Filip is introducing our international hybrid crowd to building sensors for monitoring bacterial growth. 8 in person, 14 online from 4 continents so far! Next up: actually building it! @biomakespace #openhardware #diybio pic.twitter.com/3SA7L31PpY — Jenny Molloy (@jenny_molloy) July 20, 2022 Here is the result! At a later date we will test it...

At Biomaker Meetup in June 2022 we investigated a box with parts for an open source PCR machine and centrifuge, planned our slime mould computing project for efficient routes between Cambridge pub and continued work on a controllable incubator! Planning underway for mapping routes around pubs in Cambridge using slime mould at Biomaker Meetup @cammakespace @biomakespace . Time lapse planned before our next meeting on 20 July, join to watch the (hopefully) cool video! https://t.co/eHuzvizWVd pic.twitter.com/XDyXn9Ehp4 — Jenny Molloy (@jenny_molloy) June 15, 2022 With temperature sensor sorted, Richard has moved onto the microprocessor and communications module ESP8266 for our programmable incubator at Biomaker Meetup @cammakespace @biomakespace . Python help needed, get in touch if you're after a project! pic.twitter.com/f7zPhkfmVJ — Jenny Molloy (@jenny_molloy) June 15, 2022 Tonight at Biomaker Meetup @cammakespace we're constructing an OpenFuge from parts colla

Here are some updates from our March Biomaker Meetup and an invite to  RSVP to the next meetup  on 20 April @ 19:30 in the Makespace Classroom You can find more photos from Biomaker Meetups  here. Turning a £120 beer fridge into a programmable incubator for bacteria This project is progressing well and Richard and Tony spent the evening taking measurements and drawing up a shopping list to try two different approaches to controlling custom temperature profiles. We also found an identical incubator for sale (not programmable of course!) as a lab instrument for £455 exc VAT  - lab mark up alert! In Biomaker Meetup @cammakespace last night we continued turning a £100 peltier-controlled beer fridge/reptile egg incubator into a programmable lab incubator with a data logger. Measurements taken, so we'll have components for prototyping at our April Meetup! pic.twitter.com/NzPUzdLDjG — Jenny Molloy (@jenny_molloy) March 17, 2022 NEW PROJECT! Build a computer vision rig for im

This demo session introduced techniques for detecting DNA and ways in which people have been working to make them more accessible.  We took case studies from the explosion of innovation in COVID testing since 2020 and showed hands-on hacks and makes that are driving down the cost of molecular biology. Slides and Handouts Info Sheets Minion   PocketPCR   FluoPi Other activities included extracting DNA from a strawberry, running a LAMP amplification reaction and observing a colour change and running DNA on an electrophoresis gel. Photos

In this Biology Club session, Steph Norwood gave us a whistle-stop tour and hands-on demonstration of how to get started with no-code programming. We learnt the basics of how to programme an Arduino board, and got some inspiration around how these skills can be used to build low-cost custom instruments for biological research. You can find the guide and info to follow along yourself here and for Makespace members, we have some kits available for use in the space so get in touch (bio-committee@makespace.org) for directions on how to find them or look for the Biology Club box! Getting fancy with the hybrid event tech set up for Biology Club @cammakespace @biomakespace . @StephNorwood1 @synbioIRC is ready to teach no code #arduino programming for biologists with https://t.co/5swkOJRuJ9 pic.twitter.com/TUu9lfYAZk — Jenny Molloy (@jenny_molloy) October 11, 2021 No code programming using https://t.co/5swkOJRuJ9 @cammakespace @biomakespace Biology Club. Our Hello World? But

Thanks to those who came along to Makespace and joined virtually for the Microscope Scrapheap Challenge last night. We found some very cool kit, like an  Apogee U8300 cooled CCD camera  that is useful for low-noise scientific imaging. Thanks to the crack team of Zoom researchers for pulling up spec sheets, prices and images so we could figure out what was worth saving!  We also mostly constructed a full  Leica DM LM  microscope and a motorised stage that we think go together but there are a few missing parts.  Making a start..... It works! Freebies We found some things that are less useful for building a microscope for the Biomakespace (older CCD cameras, manual mechanical stages, joysticks), they will be in the Trove at Makespace for one week until 5 Oct, if not taken or claimed by then we will dispose of them.