A community biohacker space and education center for scientists of all skill levels and ages.

BioLogik Labs
Norfolk, Virginia
BiologyEducation
Open Access
DOI: 10.18258/1802
$4,310
Raised of $3,000 Goal
143%
Funded on 5/10/14
Successfully Funded
  • $4,310
    pledged
  • 143%
    funded
  • Funded
    on 5/10/14

About This Project

We need your help to open BioLogik to the public. We are building a functional lab located in Norfolk, Va suitable for amateur scientists and synthetic biologists alike. Help us launch today! We believe in affordable access to scientific tools, citizen science, and science literacy. We are working to put science back into the hands of the individual through cheap workshops, low membership fees, training, and designing cost effective tools.

Ask the Scientists

Join The Discussion

What is the context of this research?

Biologik Labs was started in 2012 by its founder, Jameson Dungan, and has gained momentum with the addition of Rhett Sanders, co-founder. Their dream of building a biohacker space has spread like wild fire, gaining support from the local community of Norfolk, VA and the scientific community worldwide.

BioLogik started as a place for science enthusiasts to socialize and collaborate on projects. Biology Bootcamp, Organic Chemistry Techniques, Transforming Bacteria and Other Forms of Life are just some of the workshops that are being prepared for those eager to learn. We want to have open lab hours for members and central research projects that can be sourced to our members.

We want to keep science affordable, accessible, and above all, just plain fun.

What is the significance of this project?

BioLogik is located in the heart of downtown Norfolk, Virginia within a three mile radius of four universities: ODU, EVMS, NSU, and TCC. We would like to have open lab hours where students can come and practice their experiments and take workshops that correlate with their curriculum to enhance their educational experience while taking classes at these universities.

In the Hampton Roads area there a lot public, private, and home school children who don't have access to lab facilities, lab equipment, or skilled professors. BioLogik can be a place for these students to get hands on experience in a real lab with real scientists. We would like to develop experiments and workshops aimed towards children, teenagers, and young adults.


What are the goals of the project?

1) We plan to develop classes for children and young adults with hands on scientific techniques.

2) Have an open DIY biology lab geared toward education and the advancement of synthetic biology.

3) Make science affordable and accessible to the general public.

Budget

Please wait...

We set our goal at $3000, but we would like to raise a total of $6000.

We want to use $500 to subsidize membership fees for our group of five key members. These guys remain enthusiastic about BioLogik's goals and continue to help out time and time again.

We want to use $1500 to help pay for a few months rent and another $1500 to buy new furniture such as cabinets for glassware and help pay for renovations such as installing our new sink and eyewash station.

Another $1500 will pay for chemicals that will help to develop chemistry workshops, materials and reagents for synthetic biology classes and general gene splicing/transformation, and other supplies and equipment needed.

Lastly we want to use the final $1500 to pay for legal assistance and other miscellaneous expenses involved in the official launch of BioLogik Labs as a community education center available to the public.

Endorsed by

Rhett and Jameson both have a very honest ambition in democratizing the tools of laboratory science and bring a new social meaning to Critical Art Ensemble's phrase, public amateurism. They do not claim to be professionals nor experts, and that is a very good thing.
Community labs like BioLogik are helping to demystify biotechnology and promote education and best practices.
This is a great project from a great team! please join me in supporting them

Meet the Team

Jameson Dungan
Jameson Dungan
Rhett Sanders
Rhett Sanders

Team Bio

BioLogik was just a dream of mine starting in 2009 and began to take on a physical form in 2012. After visiting other biohackerspaces such as Genspace and BUGSS, also attending iGEM, there was no turning back.

I started acquiring cheap lab equipment from eBay and attempting to prototype what I couldn't afford. After acquiring some key pieces of equipment the vision began to become not only clear to others, but contagious. Interested and inquisitive minds understood exactly what my dream was and enthusiastically wanted to become part of this journey of constructing a community science lab from the ground up.

It wasn't long until I met Rhett Sanders, a recent graduate in chemistry and tutor at his university. Rhett immediately understood my vision and was so monumental to the embryonic development of the lab that he became co-founder of BioLogik.

Together we make an unstoppable team of chemistry and synthetic biology.

http://biologik.github.io

Jameson Dungan

I am an active member in the DIYbio community and have started my own synthetic biology lab here in Norfolk, Va. I am trying to create a biohackerspace that not only offers access to labspace, but also classes and training with tools and equipment. We plan to also offer something of a wetlab supplemental tutoring lessons. I want to create a space that cultivates enthusiasm, science literacy, and embrace the notion of citizen science with active, novel contributions to research to all of science.

I plan on prototyping and reverse engineering a lot of the basic and core biotech pieces of equipment and other tools. They will be offered as an open source project and kits will also be available for sale.

Find me, message me, I would love to communicate and help. We are just starting the lab and I'm pioneering as well, but we're all on the adventure together. Science is the journey, not a destination.

Press and Media

BioLogik was featured in the DIYsect trailer:
DIYsect Trailer from Ben and Mary.

Check out Jameson's Ignite talk on Synthetic Biology and the beginnings of BioLogik:
Who are the Biopunks? What is biohacking? Jameson Dungan describes the beginnings of BioLogik labs and more!

Biopunk: The Return of Citizen Science from Thor on Vimeo.


Here is a paper written by Jameson about a realistic science fiction world in the year 2060 looking back on the times of 2000-2020 and the roll in which synthetic biology would reshape civilization and society.
http://www.terasemjournals.com/GNJournal/GN0601/du...

Additional Information



Special thanks to Karla Espino from Thought Projections Media for filming and producing our crowd funding video, Tomasz Foster for developing our website, and the key members of BioLogik Labs: Xavier Palmer, Dariel Hopersberger, Lorelei Hopersberger, Linsley Moseberth, Mirisa Lewis, and Alison Hartsook.



Project Backers

  • 78Backers
  • 143%Funded
  • $4,310Total Donations
  • $55.26Average Donation
Please wait...