Main Page
Welcome to the wiki of the Hackuarium association, an open public lab, which wishes to democratise research!
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, almost everything here is work-in-progress.
Scroll down and find out what this is all about!
BIG NEWS: Hackuarium has moved to a new location!
The new address is Route de Crochy 20, 1024 Ecublens
Everyone is welcome to our weekly Open Hackuarium meetings, continuing every Wednesday, 19:00-22:00!
Check the list below for upcoming events
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. The quick solution (even if unconventional) is what is meant by hacks...
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 more and more in doing DIT (Do-It-Together) Science, not just 'DIYbio,' 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 to democratise science through public engagement.
Our laboratories in Ecublens (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 and non-scientists from a variety of backgrounds. 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 constraints of traditional institutions.
Hackuarium members want to investigate new ways of carrying out interdisciplinary research and innovation, by making their results open, accessible (low-cost), simple and easily reproducible (low-tech) and by promoting an open source philosophy.
And if you are curious where the name comes from, take a look here.
Where are we located?
Route de Crochy 20, CH-1024 Écublens, Switzerland (Ouest lausannois, m1 Crochy)
To note: this building is really only a provisional space, as it is destined for destruction in the next 3-5 years!
We will continue to look for a more permanent space, while developing our community further and promoting Open Science!
For some History:
Hackuarium found its new home (yay!) after being generously hosted for four years in infrastructures provided by UniverCité, an unconventional innovation hub that opened in May 2014 in the "Ateliers" in Renens (formerly IRL building). Our equipment is mostly upcycled material from institutions and industries from western Switzerland. We have documented our working environment as it has evolved. For almost 6 months, our big hoods and other equipment were in storage, ready to be moved into our new lab space, a happy event begun the 1st of February 2019!
Between December 2015 and January 2017, UniverCité regrouped our laboratory, a workshop and coworking space. The floor where we originally moved in 2014 required some refurbishing and was under construction work from January until June 2017; and we temporarily relocated on the first floor of the same building. Since July 2017, we have been back on the second floor of what is now called the "Ateliers de Renens" Chemin du Closel 5, 1020 Renens. The original plan in the renovated space was to have a biohackerspace on one side, with a 'pro' lab space on the other, and a shared biosafety level 1 laboratory in between. The community lab idea for UC, however, has now been given over to primarily startup and co-working hosting.
When Hackuarium was asked to pay rent as if it were already a startup with a successful business plan, the members decided during an extraordinary general assembly meeting (on 12 September 2018), that we would have to look for a new place to set-up our biohacker space and P1 lab, with enough room to allow further growth and exciting collaborations. A cooperative (Space Alliance Coopérative) with two other associations (Octanis & Polymeka) and a few other startups came together to look for a new place to call home and provide space for everyone's projects and work. Our first activities in the new spaces started in February 2019. Our biolab and inner sanctum for electronics and imagerie and more are already facilitating project experiments, with more fun in the pipeline with our coop colleagues, like Sam and Raffael from Octanis, who were also early members of Hackuarium.
Who are we?
Our members reflect the diversity that is in and around the Lausanne area.
Check us out, and find out what makes Hackuarium a good mix.
Committee
The current committee was elected during our annual general assembly meeting and duties for each person have been assigned:
For 2019, it is composed of the following people:
- President: Rachel Aronoff (also Citizen Science coordinator and Biosafety Officer)
- Secretary and System Administrator: Yann Heurtaux
- Treasurer: Masoud Alipour
- Deputy Biosafety Officer and Communications Coordinator: Olivier Emery
- Art and Science coordinator: Vanessa Lorenzo
- Talent scout and evangelist for Academy: Anne-Laure Pittet
- Community Happiness Coordinator: Esther Calderon
- Link to the communes of the region of East Lausanne: Joël Christen
The Agenda of the next board meeting can be found here.
The Agenda of the last 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 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
We would like to thank the Foundation Inartis for hosting our activities in Renens for the past four years (2014-2018)
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
2019
- 2019.05.04 Saturday 9:00-18:00: Workshop for the The FoodRepo DNA project. Registration required! You can find more information here.
- 2019.05.18 Saturday 14:00-17:00: Cheek Cell Micronuclei Workshop in Hackuarium's new home.
- 2019.06.12 Wednesday 19:00-21:30: Open Hackuarium #258 - 'Lab Warming Party' in Hackuarium's new home.
- 2019.10.05 5 year birthday party.
or follow our google calendar
Other Upcoming Events
2019
- Shalf is pitching Hackuarium and Dans la Drêche on stage at the Good Brand Summit, Wed. 2019-05-15 (let him know if you need to join but are not the fastest. 50% Off Discount Code available on slack).
- Pint of Science Lausanne 2019
- Rachel will give a short talk on 'la recherche participative pour la santé publique' in Bienne for #SciComm (19-20sept)
Past Hackuarium Events
You can find the complete list of our past events here.
Event Organisation
You want to organise an event? Go for it!
Just follow these instructions.
Projects
Here, you will find the projects going on at Hackuarium.
Active Projects
- BeeMoS
- BeerDeCoded
- Open source spectrophotometer
- Living Instruments
- Darty_Monkeys
- Grow&Mix_Bioink
- AGiR! projects at Hackuarium
- Urban gardens with rhizobial bacteria
- Open Source Bioreactor
- Steady state bioreactor
- Workshop Bioprinter
- Dans la Drêche
Archived Projects
- Micro to Macro Water Pollution - with Hammerdirt and BIO-DESIGN for the REAL WORLD
- Spectro-pointer
- Terraforming Alkaline Experiments
- DIY Transilluminator
- Stress Analyzer
- BIO-DESIGN for the REAL WORLD
- Octanis - All projects from the Octanis association have moved to a new space. For more information about their Rover / Balloon click here.
- Crowdfunding
- HTGAA
- 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.
Use of the Biolab
As of November 2017, Hackuarium was officially hosting its own P1 laboratory. While we still lacked some essential infrastructure (-80 freezer, ventilated fume hood), we are working on it...
More can be found out about use of that facility by following the next link...
P1 Lab Activities
However, the new space in Ecublens has even more challenges, with the sterile hood not even fitting in the doors or windows, so while we still hope to qualify as an official P1, but are not yet sure! More details will be known after 6June2019, when a visitor from Bern will come to the lab!
A new Biolab Use and Safety page will specify equipment and standard operating procedures in the lab in the context of the cooperative in Ecublens.
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.
Consumable in stock
You can check online the [consumable in stock].
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
As a general rule, we do not buy anything. We try to recycle, upcycle, bicycle, epicycle anything we can, or ask around if anyone can provide supplies for free.
In some cases it does not work out, and so these are the place where we can find what we need.
In any case, Please contact Luc Henry if you need to order anything in the name of Hackuarium.
Labware and Reagents
Consumables and some chemicals can be purchased from Huber Lab.
More chemicals can be obtained from Carl Roth.
If necessary, other chemicals and biochemicals can be obtained from Sigma Aldrich.
Molecular biology tools can be purchased from Qiagen.
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.
But most laboratory hardware can be obtained from our network of friends and partners. Get in touch with Luc Henry if you need anything specific and we'll do our best to find it.
Organic
Algae, protozoa, aquatic life and educational kits: | Sciento
Bacteria, global biosource center (Hackuarium has a customer account, shop through our Biosecurity manager): | ATCC
Carolina.com is another source, much less expensive than ATCC for (for instance) the rhizobial bacterial strain!
Hardware
Options for electronic parts:
- Ebay (international)
- AliExpress (China)
- Adafruit (UK)
- Seeedstudio (China)
- Tmart (Hong Kong)
- Rasberry pi shop (Switzerland)
- Distrelec (Switzerland)
How to build 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.
Reading List
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