A Community Bio-Tech Lab Offers a Crash Course in Designing Life — Open to the Public
By Adam Wernick,
PRI
| 06. 05. 2015
Untitled Document
“Scientists in general are awful at communicating their work to the general public,” says Jorgensen, the director of Genspace. “The consumer is already using genetically modified and genetically engineered products in their daily life. So, wouldn't it be nice if the end user were also someone who could have a say about what this technology was used for?“
Genspace, which opened in downtown Brooklyn in 2009, is the world's first community bio-lab. It offers a three-class crash course in synthetic biology to anyone who is interested. It also has a working lab space where the general public is invited to come in and learn how to do genetic science — hands on.
At Genspace, Wetherell experimented with her own DNA. Here her DNA is suspended in an agarose gel that is charged by an electical current that separates the proteins
Credit: Julia Wetherell
For $100 a month, Genspace members have access to the standardized gene sets that are the building blocks of synthetic biology. If that sounds daunting, consider this: Non-scientists make up a big part of...
Related Articles
By Matthew Herper, Stat | 07.01.2026
Researchers have created what they say may count as the first synthetic cell, and have started a public benefit corporation to share the technology with other scientists. It’s a piece of science that generates as many questions as answers. They...
By Darren Incorvaia, Fierce Biotech | 07.16.2026
Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D., the Nobel Laureate best known for co-inventing the CRISPR system that has become the foundation for gene editing, is dipping her toes into a new, buzzy field: AI-powered protein design.
In a new paper, published today...
By Emily Baumgaetner Nunn, The New York Times | 07.20.2026
The National Institutes of Health recently announced a remarkable achievement: the world’s largest database of human genomes, a repository of information that the agency says will help usher in a new era in personalized medicine.
Scientists are already developing clinical...
By Emily Packard Dawson and Lainie Friedman Ross , The Hastings Center for Bioethics | 07.16.2026
Major news outlets recently reported – based on a bioRxiv preprint – that scientists had edited genes in human embryos with “startling precision.” The scientists’ decision to release this work ahead of peer review, coupled with the extensive media coverage...
