What we’re about
We believe that innovations in biology should be
accessible, affordable, and open to everyone.
We’re building a community biology lab for
amateurs, inventors, entrepreneurs,
and anyone who wants to
experiment with friends.
Welcome to BioCurious
Visit the BioCurious homepage
BioCurious Community Lab
Opened in Sunnyvale, CA; Fall 2011! and in 2017 we moved to Santa Clara.
Join the discussion at Google Groups
http://groups.google.com/group/biocurious
Our successful Kickstarter campaign (http://biocurious.org/kickstarter) brought together volunteers and other biology enthusiasts eager to create a community lab, and they helped us raise over $35,000.
We are a 6700 sq. ft. facility in the heart of Silicon Valley. Come join us and see the next big thing to start in a Silicon Valley garage.
BioCurious is…
a complete working laboratory and technical library
for entrepreneurs to cheaply access
equipment, materials, and co-working space
a training center for biotechniques, with an emphasis on safety
a meeting place for citizen scientists, hobbyists,
activists, and students
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Science is all around us. Many find a love for it at an early age, but few continue to learn after leaving educational institutions. For those who continue to seek to know, there is BioCurious. Curious about biology? Come to a meetup to find other like-minded folk!
BioCurious is a completely volunteer run non-profit organization. We serve the community by providing lab space and classes to members and the community.
There are plenty of ways to get involved:
become a member
teach a class
take a class
donate your time, money
change the world
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Wet-Lab Plant Tissue Culture Workshop (Take-Home Plant Included!)3108 Patrick Henry Dr, Santa Clara, CA$250.00
Welcome to the Plant Tissue Culture Workshop! Join us at BioCurious (3108 Patrick Henry Dr, Santa Clara, CA 95054) for hands-on experience in plant micropropagation. In this class, you’ll learn about the four stages of micropropagation (sterile technique and aseptic culture, multiplication, in vitro rooting, and acclimatization) and begin a culture for your own houseplant.
Each workshop we work with a different houseplant and this week is Satin Pothos edition! This plant boasts dark green leaves and beautiful silver streaks. You’ll also understand how to source and replicate tissue culture protocols so that you can pursue micropropagation as a budding plant scientist.
The workshop fee is $250. Venmo @ccl-plantbio. Last four digits phone # confirmation: 6986. Message the organizer on Meetup if you need an alternate payment method. This covers instruction, the materials used in class, as well as your take-home kit!
Required lab attire for safety: Long pants and closed-toed shoes.
Unable to attend? Interested in other classes like plant genetic engineering, bioluminescent algae, and DNA fundamentals? Join our mailing list to hear about upcoming workshops!
About the Instructor
Anthony Neil Tan is an AgTech professional [UC Berkeley Bioengineering]. He is currently an independent research scientist and his projects center on optimizing the cultivation of high-value plants via plant tissue culture and plant genetic engineering. His past projects range from designing a plant growth chamber that won a national NASA contest to developing new plant genetic engineering tools at the U.S. Department of Energy's Joint BioEnergy Institute.No refunds can be issued.
- Real Vegan Cheese - in person lab work3108 Patrick Henry Dr, Santa Clara, CA
The Real Vegan Cheese project is back at the bench. Join us on alternating Mondays at 7pm (check meetup.com/biocurious/events/) for in-person in-lab workshops at BioCurious. You do not need any prior experience or knowledge to join. This event is in the laboratory space, and properly safe attire is required (closed-toed shoes, long pants, long hair tied back).
We are making specific proteins that are necessary for the formation of cheese. Work will likely involve things like yeast strain handling, transformation, culturing, plasmid cloning, PCR, electrophoresis, protein expression, and SDS-PAGE gels. Eventually, we hope to get closer to scaling up production in bioreactors.
The Real Vegan Cheese (https://realvegancheese.org/) project is an award-winning collaboration between BioCurious and our sister lab Counter Culture Labs (http://counterculturelabs.org/) in Oakland, to make real cheese without using any animals!
This grassroots, non-profit research project explores the technology of cellular agriculture by adding the genes for cheese proteins into yeast and other microflora. This turns the yeast into little protein factories, and we aim to use these as a basis to make real cheese by adding plant-based fats and sugars. We call the project "real" vegan cheese because this is not a cheese substitute -- the proteins are the same and so we aim to use the same cheesemaking techniques as you would with cow or goat milk. Additionally, we can explore making cheese from proteins from other mammals that are difficult to milk. We are dedicated to Open Science and making sure the results of our research are available to the global community to enable a sustainable animal-free dairy industry.
