Main Page
Welcome to the wiki of the Hackuarium association!
At Hackuarium, we want to bring biology (and biologists) to the world, and the real world back to biology. Our laboratory is an excuse to meet and discuss, build and develop ideas in a neutral, open, noncompetitive and not-for-profit environment.
This page was launched during our 1st Ever Hackuarium Wiki Sprint that took place on 7 December 2014. As you might notice quickly, it is a work-in-progress.
Scroll down and find out what this is all about!
What is DIYbio?
DIYbio (Do-It-Yourself biology) is a movement that wants to free the practice of biological research and innovation from the institutional and industrial laboratories. Pursued both by amateurs and professional biologists, DIYbio is developing low-cost and low-tech solutions to problems identified by the community.
The movement is characterised by an extremely diverse set of practices and participants. Some call themselves 'biohackers', in reference to the hacker culture.
DIYbio.org and DIYbio.eu are the portals of the international and european communities, respectively.
For more information, visit the Wikipedia page dedicated to DIYbio.
We actually believe in doing DIT (Do-It-Together) Science, as it reflects better the scope of the trans-disciplinary projects we do (often not only biology).
What is Hackuarium?
Hackuarium is a not-for-profit association aiming at democratizing science through public engagement.
Our laboratory in Renens (Switzerland) is open to anyone sharing the values of the association and who is dedicated to follow the DIYbio Europe ethical guidelines.
Our projects are initiated and carried out by scientists as well as non-scientists from a variety of background. They are passionate about tinkering with biology in particular, and technology in general. Some are engineers, architects, designers, IT and computer scientists or retired professionals, but others have no scientific education. They are mostly citizens interested in open and participatory research and innovation, outside the constrains of traditional institutions.
Hackuarium members want to investigate new ways of carrying out interdisciplinary research and innovation, by making their results accessible (low-cost), simple and easily reproducible (low-tech) and by promoting an open source philosophy.
Where are we?
Hackuarium is proudly using infrastructures provided by UniverCité, an unconventional innovation hub that opened in May 2014 in the IRL building in Renens. Our equipment is mostly upcycled material from institutions and industries from western Switzerland. We have documented our working environment as it has evolved.
Between December 2015 and January 2017, UniverCité regrouped our laboratory, a workshop and coworking space.
The original space was under construction work from January until June 2017 and We temporarily relocated on the first floor of the same building.
We are back on the second floor of what is now called "Ateliers de Renens", Chemin du Closed 5, 1020 Renens.
Who are we?
Renens is a hopping hub - and our members reflect the diversity that is in and around Lausanne/Renens.
Check us out, and find out what makes Hackuarium a good mix.
Committee
The current committee is composed of the following people:
- Co - President: Vanessa Lorenzo (also Art and Design coordinator)
- Co - President: Rachel Aronoff (also Citizen Science coordinator)
- Secretary and Treasurer: Luc Henry
- Lab Manager: Gustavo Santamaria
- Online promotion: Yann Pierson
- System Administrator: Sam Sulaimanov
- Talent scout and evangelist for Academy: Anne-Laure Pittet
- Talent scout and evangelist for Entrepreneurs: Gianpaolo Rando
- Talent scout and evangelist: Daniel Hernandez
- Community happiness, Ateliers de Renens Link: Yann Heurtaux
The Agenda of the last board meeting can be found here.
The Agenda of the next board meeting can be found here.
Members and Membership
Do you have a project in mind? Do you just want to support us?
Hackuarium operates on a membership basis, even though all events are open to anyone, including non-members.
The monthly membership fee is 20 CHF. It gives 24/7 access to the lab.
We would love to have you as a member! Just follow the instructions below.
Want to join?
- We have a new form on the website, to fast-track joining the community, if you are keen, perhaps after a few #OpenHackuarium experiences (every Wednesday evening is open to the public).
- Read some helpful info here.
- Write an email to hello@hackuarium.ch and give us a short description of:
- Yourself, your interests, your background
- What you would like to learn or do at Hackuarium
Friends of Hackuarium
Spaces:
Projects:
Events
Our lab and space are open to the public. Please come and have a chat! And if you have any questions get in touch!
OpenHackuarium: Every Wednesday, 19:00-22:00
You want to organise an event at Hackuarium, or with the Hackuarium community? We have guidelines below.
Upcoming Hackuarium Events
2018
- 2018.05.16 Wednesday 19:30-22:00: Swiss Engineers visit Hackuarium - Looking forward to an evening of Moss music? Join us!
- 2018.05.02 Wednesday 19:30-22:00: 200 weeks of Hackuarium - Should we celebrate? Let us know how!
- 2018.04.18 Wednesday 19:30-22:00: Bernard Dugas - Suivant les pas de Pierre Delbet: Magnesium et Santé -
- 2018.04.04 Wednesday 19:30-22:00: OH196 Open Hackuarium - Workshop: DIY Microfluidics
- 2018.03.31 Saturday 14:00-17:30: Workshop - DNA Damage
- 2018.03.29 Thursday 19:00-21:00: Board Meeting
- 2018.03.28 Wednesday 19:00-21:00: OH195 Open Hackuarium - A special night about Phage Therapy
- 2018.03.10 Saturday 09:30-18:00: Workshop - Build your own spectrophotometer!
- 2018.03.21 Wednesday 19:00-22:00: 20180321 OH194 Hackahealth - Students from Campus Biotech are visiting Hackuarium and organising the Hackahealth
- 2018.03.07 Wednesday 19:30-22:00: General Assembly - Annual meeting of the members (all visitors welcome!)
- 2018.02.28 Wednesday 19:00-22:00: EPFL iGEM is visiting Hackuarium!
or follow our google calendar
Other Upcoming Events at UniverCité
Other Upcoming Events
- 2018.03.08 Thursday 10:30-16:30: 20180308 Swilabs Meeting Zurich
- 2018.03.08 Thursday 10:30-16:30: 20180308 Swilabs Meeting Zurich
Past Hackuarium Events
You can find the complete list of our past events here.
Projects
Here, you will find the projects going on in the Hackuarium.
Active Projects
- P1 Lab Activities
- BeerDeCoded
- BIO-DESIGN for the REAL WORLD
- Living Instruments
- Micro to Macro Water Pollution - with Hammerdirt and BIO-DESIGN for the REAL WORLD
- Spectro-pointer
- Darty_Monkeys
- Octanis - with more information about their Rover / Balloon here
- Grow&Mix_Bioink
- AGiR! for genomic integrity
- Moss Menageries with AGiR!
- Open Source Bioreactor
- Steady state bioreactor
- Workshop Bioprinter
- HTGAA
- Terraforming Alkaline Experiments
- Crowdfunding
- DIY Transilluminator
Archived Projects
- Hacktion challenges
- Open-Food-DNA
- Bience (Beer and Science!)
- Mycelium Structures
- Live Type
- LivingLab Design
- Bioluminescence
- Quantitative Anthropology
- Impression 3D
- Projects:Dépollution des stands de tirs Suisses
- Incubateur bon marché
- Space Seed
- Reception d'images satellites
- Edible wall
- ZéBU CH
- Compost Bacteria
- Protein purification systems
- unmapping
- Colab Biomaterials
Practical Information
Rules at Hackuarium
We have very few rules at Hackuarium. The goal of the association is to provide freedom to its members, so they can explore beyond what is allowed elsewhere. However, we want members and anyone participating in our activities to feel comfortable and respected.
This page describes the code of conduct for Hackuarium members.
Event Organisation
You want to organise an event?
Go for it! and spread the love for tech, science, art and design.
Here is a "Wiki express" so that everyone feels empowered:
- Want to organise an EVENT with members/companies/universities/anyone?
- Talk to Vanessa or Rachel — or send an email to board@hackuarium.ch — to make sure there is no conflict with another event
- Talk to XXX to check if the space is free
- Talk to Yann Pierson our 'online promotion' specialist, who will make sure the announcements are made on all the social media outlets for Hackuarium!
- You need a microgrant to cover the costs (up to 300.-)? Send an email to board@hackuarium.ch with a description (what, when, who) and a preliminary budget.
- When all this is arrange, talk to the community, to spread the word —> us the slack #_uc-events channel
- Is it a WORKSHOP?? All the previous & make sure you get your logistics right!
- Is there a SIMILAR workshop ALREADY planned?If yes, negotiate dates and: Do you target the SAME people? If yes, negotiate. If not, no problem. It maybe interesting to see what others do.
Protocols
All the protocols that we use at Hackuarium will be found here (work in progress). They are detailed and structured so that the main focus is on applications. The idea is to give crucial information on how to apply the most common techniques of the Biology toolbox. The protocols are structured as follow:
- A scheme describing each
- A brief description of the protocol and its use
- A description of the different ways of carrying out the protocol. Ideally there should be a description of a commercial kit and a DIY kit.
- A description of the safety issues and best practice
- Information specific to Hackuarium and where to find the components, tools and reagents.
Instruments available
This page describes all the instruments available at Hackuarium (work in progress..), their location and how to use them.
Up-to-date list of instruments we still need
This on-line document contains all the instruments, tools and consumables we are looking for. We have a standard donation contract (contrat de donation, in French) and if your organisation happen to discard a piece of equipment we are (or may be) looking for, contact us!
Where we shop
Wetware
Consumables and chemicals can be purchased from Huber Lab.
Swiss-based Smiples has a very extensive listing of second hand laboratory and technical items. These can be bought from their online shop or from Ricardo.
Organic
Algae, protozoa, acuatic life and educational kits: | Sciento
Bacteria, global biosource center (Hackuarium has a customer account, shop through our Biosecurity manager): | ATCC
Hardware
Options for electronic parts
- Ebay (international)
- AliExpress (China)
- Adafruit (UK)
- Seeedstudio (China)
- Tmart (Hong Kong)
- Rasberry pi shop (Switzerland)
- Distrelec (Switzerland)
How to built a new project page on our Wiki
If you want to start or edit a project page on Hackuarium's wiki, please follow these instructions.
ReadingList
The DIY biology / Biohacking movement
And a much more complete list by Massimiliano Simons, KU Leuven:
Open Hardware
Art
Ideas/Concepts/Science
Open Source
Visual Identity
- Logo
- Our poster in pdf ready to print
- Working on a footage for videos (comming soon)
Media and Press
Please check our Press kit out. It includes a prototype Press review of most of our media appearances over the years.
EU Paperwork
We now have an identification number aka Participant Identification Code (PIC) from the European Participant Portal for any Horizon 2020 application. The Hackuarium PIC number is 907732306. It can be verified on the official search engine.
Wanted
Do you want to contribute to making Hackuarium a diverse and lively community? Check out our wanted lists:
- Skills
- Ideas
- Equipment
- Consumables