garage biology+ arduinos + makers + art + scientists + hackers + lectures + sleeping bags = hackathon

FutureLabCamp is a weekend hackathon (fri-sun) taking place at MIT in Boston September 16-18th 2011.

Past events occurred in NYC (April 8-10 2011) and in Boston (May 27-30 2011).

It’s a weekend celebrating the exchange of biologists, artists, engineers and designers, gathering to explore the future of biological prototyping in an intense 48-hour sprint. Each camp is kick-started with series of lightning talks and concludes two days later with a lightning round of demos. In between, everyone may camp-out at or around the venue to facilitate interaction.

Participate in FLC2.5

Learn More about FLC

Invitation

Biohackers,

A quick and short-timed announcement: FutureLabCamp2.5 is going to occur this weekend at the “t=0” hackathon / conference / festival at MIT. We’ll have a little brainstorming on Friday night and hack all day Saturday and Sunday.

We’re starting things off with a workshop on basic molecular biology on Saturday morning. We’ll walk everyone through genomic DNA extraction, PCR, and gel electrophoresis with traditional equipment… then we’ll ask the participants to prototype a way to do part of the process better, cheaper, faster, or more DIY.

If any of you would like to volunteer to help, please email me (mac@futurelabcamp.com) – I have a limited number of registration slots for DIYbioers and FLC alumni

Cheers,
Mac

About

FutureLabCamp 2.5 – Hacking the molecular biology toolchain
Biotechnology is expensive and complicated. It shouldn’t be. We’re bringing a conventional molecular biology toolchain (equipment and reagents) for genomic DNA extraction, DNA amplification with PCR, and DNA length analysis with gel electrophoresis. We’ll run a hands-on workshop Saturday morning to show you how it all works, and then ask you to hack on it and make any part of the process cheaper, easier, faster, better, more DIY-friendly, etc. Folks from the local diybio scene will be present. More info: futurelabcamp.com/boston.

Location and Schedule

where:
the Z center/Johnson in the “ice rink” (it’s near the student center).

t=0 schedule:
The t=0 official schedule: t0.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/t0-Schedule.pdf.

FLC sub-schedule:
6pm Friday night we’ll participate in startup-lab brainstorming.
11am Saturday, we’ll run through genomic extraction, PCR, and analysis w/ electrophoresis and then invite participants to hack on that toolchain until Sunday evening.
5pm Sunday demotime for all hacks!

FutureLabCamp Boston was held on May 27th-30th (Memorial Day weekend) at Templeman Automation in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Weekend Projects:

• 3D-printed peristaltic pump
• flatbed gel electrophoresis scanner
• Boston: Biohackturing & applied biohacking brainstorming
• Pocket Topologies: 3D-printed mini biogeospatial maps

Photos of the event are available on Flickr, and the presentations are available on scribd. We’ll even have videos up on vimeo someday .

See you next time!

Schedule

Friday:
6:30 PM – Drinks & Snacks at the venue; informal chatting
7:30 PM – Lighting Talks Begin!
8:30 PM – Structured Brainstorming & team formation
9:30 PM – Done for the night

Saturday:
10:30 AM – Coffee n Bagels; team formation
11:00 AM – Hacking Begins

Sunday:
4:00 PM – Time to work on demo / presentation
6:00 PM – DEMOTIME (5 min per team)
7:00 PM – FLC-BOSTON is concluded

Who: Mac Cowell (@100ideas) and Sean Jeffries

What: Retrofitting a flatbed scanner for gel electrophoresis illumination for GelRed or GelGreen dyes

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