Main Page
Welcome to the wiki of Hackuarium community.
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!
DIY Bio
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.
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 contrains 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.
Hackuarium is proudly using infrastructures provided by UniverCité, an unconventional innovation hub opened in May 2014. Our equipment is mostly upcycled material from institutions and industries from western Switzerland.
Who we are
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:
- President & Treasurer: Luc Henry
- Secretary: Michal Masternak
- Lab Manager: Yann Pierson
- Information technology & Infrastructure: Sam Sulaimanov
- Art and Design coordinator: Vanessa Lorenzo
- Talent scout and evangelist: Gianpaolo Rando
- Events and coordinator: Anne-Laure Pittet
- Member: Ana Roldan
The Agenda of the last board meeting can be found here.
Members and Membership
Hackuarium operates on a membership basis at this current time.
The monthly membership fee is 20 CHF. It gives 24/7 access to the lab.
Please ask a member of the board if you want to join as a member.
All events are open to anyone, including non-members.
Friends of Hackuarium
Spaces:
Projects:
Where we are
Hackuarium is one of the association active at UniverCité, an innovation space under construction since May 2014 in the IRL building in Renens. We have documented our working environment as it has evolved.
As of December 2015, UniverCité regroups a laboratory, a workshop and co-working space.
Events
OpenHackuarium: Every Wednesday, 19:00-22:00
Our lab and space are open to the public. Please come and have a chat! And if you have any questions get in touch!
Upcoming Hackuarium Events
- 2016.12.14 Wednesday 19:30-20:30: Fondue Night. In preparation of the General Assembly that will happen in early 2017, we will have a discussion followed by a fondue! All members welcome to talk about the future!
- 2016.12.07 Wednesday 19:30-21:30: Presentation of Co-Lab. It is not too late to fin out what will happen at the Co-Lab Biomaterial workshop on 09-11 December 2016.
- 2016.11.28 Thursday 19:30-20:30: Board meeting
Other Upcoming Events at UniverCité
- 2016.12.09-11 Friday-Sunday 9:30-18:30: Co-Lab Biomaterial at EPFL & Hackuarium, apply here before November 30th!
- 2016.11.25-27 Friday-Sunday 9:30-18:30: Science Hackathon 2016 The first ever Science Hackathon at UniverCité: let's hack research!
Other Upcoming Events
- 2017.02.11-12 Friday-Saturday: The Food Hackdays by the OpenData.ch association
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
- Hacktion challenges
- The P1 project
- BeerDeCoded
- Living Instruments
- Protein purification systems
- BIO-DESIGN for the REAL WORLD
- 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
- unmapping
- AGiR! for genomic integrity
- Moss Menageries with AGiR!
- Open Source Bioreactor
- Steady state bioreactor
Archived Projects
- 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
Practical Informations
Following this link you will find a general plan of Hackuarium.
Following this link, you will find the plan of Hackuarium with the position of equipment.
Rules at Hackuarium
This page describe the code of conduct for Hackuarium members.
Protocols
All the protocols that we use at Hackuarium can be found here 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. Our standard donation contract (French) Contrat_de_donation. If your organisation happen to discard a piece of equipment we are (or may be) looking for, contact us!
Where we shop
Wetware
Consumables 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.
Hardware
Options for electronic parts
- Ebay (international)
- AliExpress (China)
- Adafruit (UK)
- Seeedstudio (China)
- Tmart (Hong Kong)
- Rasberry pi shop (Switzerland)
- Distrilec (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.
Library and ReadingList
The DIY biology / Biohacking movement
Open Hardware
Art
Ideas/Concepts/Science
Open Source
Media and Press
- 2016.09.27 - Hackuarium is mentioned in a paper by Celia Luterbacher on citizen science: Citizen science: Not a scientist? Not a problem
- 2016.09.18 - Luc Henry, co-founder of Hackuarium, is interviewed in this podcast on citizen science: Science for non-scientists
Wanted
Do you want to contribute to making Hackuarium a diverse and lively community? Check out our wanted lists:
- Skills
- Ideas
- Equipment
- Consumables