LA Biohackers

What it is. A non-institutional community group I co-founded in Los Angeles in the early 2010s with peers in the LA community-bio scene, working toward an open community biolab and broader public access to wet-lab biology. Concurrent with my time as a Fellow and Lecturer at the UCLA Art|Sci Center and Lab (2009–2016).

The problem behind it. Wet-lab biology was a specialized environment with high cost-of-entry and a culture organized around credentials. Outside of formal institutions there was almost no way for a curious adult, a high-school student, or an artist to actually pipette anything. The DIY-bio movement had started gathering in NY (Genspace) and Bay Area (BioCurious) by the late 2000s. LA had no equivalent. We were trying to build the LA chapter of that conversation.

What I did. Co-founded the group; ran community meetings and skill-shares; helped scaffold the academic-side bridges through UCLA Art|Sci where I was concurrently teaching. The work was less about lab infrastructure and more about gathering people who were ready to organize around access. Some of the people who came through this scene went on to start their own community labs; some went into industry; some went into the iGEM-Foundation orbit I am still in today.