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Equipment

Which equipment should we use?

Commercial competition is an established means of driving innovation. However, as with the microbes and processes, development of either open source or generic equipment may be necessary to ensure that those who most need them can afford them.

Using an open source equipment also enables you to both customise it’s capabilities, and contribute to it’s development.

General purpose lab ware should be relatively easy to procure, and toxicity and chemical analysis can initially be outsourced to commercial labs. There are some more expensive pieces of equipment to focus on:


1 - Bioreactors

Which bioreactors should we use?

Once you have determined which protein you wish to cultivate, the next question is what you are going to cultivate it in. There is a need for development of better and more efficient bioreactors across the board - but, given the nature of this project, it makes sense to, at least initially, restrict our scope to open source bioreactors.

Bioreactor Shortlist

Pioreactor

“The Pioreactor is an open-source, affordable, and extensible bioreactor platform.”

It currently comes in a cute and cost-effective 20 ml version that can be used in batch, fed batch, continuous, chemostat, turbidostat & PID morbidostat modes. While the software is already open source, we understand from the founder that the hardware and 3D designs are due to be made open source in 2023.

Exciting features for Amybo (as of June 2023):

  • it appears to be more affordable than most automated bioreactors
  • it will soon be fully open source, hence customisable
  • it is clearly under active development
  • it is available for sale with excellent lead times
  • you can add LEDs as a light source for algae
  • the system is compatible with DormantBioLabResources’ open source modular lab racks

Wish list (as of June 2023):

  1. Ability to automatically upload results to a project cloud database
  2. larger vessels - so probes can be added
  3. Easy-open viewport cover (it currently requires 4 screws)
  4. 3D printer files - to minimise shipping cost & carbon, and enable community development
  5. Ability to control temperature below ambient
  6. Ability to wall-mount for bioreactor farms & video production
  7. Fully assembled units (including pre-configured raspberry pi’s) for technophobes
  8. Global stockists - to reduce shipping time, cost and carbon
  9. A way to be certain that reactor overflow isn’t going to fry your raspberry pi

Other Open Source Bioreactors

Hackuarium’s bioreactor

Watch also Open source bioreactor

Concerns (as of June 2023):

  1. last commit was 7 months ago
  2. It doesn’t appear to be commercially available although full assembly instructions and a detailed bill of materials are given

Phenobottle

Watch Photobioreactor (Phenobottle)

Concerns (as of June 2023):

  1. last commit was 2 years ago

EVE-Pi

See also biorxiv article

Concerns (as of June 2023):

  1. last commit was 2 years ago

New Harvest Open Source Bioreactor

See also IRNAS

Concerns (as of June 2023):

  1. last commit was 3 years ago

Biomaker Open Source Bioreactor Project

See also Biomakespace and Hackster

Concerns (as of June 2023):

  1. last commit was 5 years ago.
  2. chat channel is a dead link

2 - Autoclaves

Which sterilisation systems should we use?

Open Source Autoclave Shortlist

This is a short list, there are a number of open source autoclave control projects:

But the only open source project that claims to deliver a full autoclave, is in our opinion just a thermal steriliser, as it doesn’t appear to pressurise the sterilisation volume.

It may well be that open source autoclaves are too risky. The probability of an explosion with an incorrectly constructed unit is high and the consequences could be lethal.

Given the high risk and low volumes of sales a commercial autoclave would likely be the most expensive item on our equipment list. So we should consider pressure cookers:

Pressure cookers

Electronic

Metallic Black GPC201SS-20 5.5L 1000W Pressure Cooker

Exciting features for Amybo (as of June 2023):

  • Low price
  • Can be used outside the kitchen (no hob required)

Concerns (as of June 2023):

  • Can it accurately monitor and control temperature and pressure?
  • Will condensation be an issue? (Autoclaves use dry steam)

Stovetop

Ikea 365+

Prestige

Other Open Source “Autoclaves”

OpenAutoclave

See also Open Autoclave: Build an open-source off-grid medical instrument sterilizer, Open Source Medical Autoclave for Developing World, Open Autoclave: a Humanitarian Maker Project

Concerns (as of June 2023):

  1. How can this maintain pressure, and if it doesn’t, how can it be called an autoclave?

3 - Microscopes

Which microscopes should we use?

Microscopes are third on the list of major open source equipment, because it is very possible to conduct fermentation without a microscope. It would however be much more difficult and less rewarding if you could never see your microbes. Microscopy also plays a valuable role in detecting contamination by unwanted microbes.

Fortunately there are a good number of open source microscopy projects:

Our Microscope Shortlist

Open Flexure

See also:

UC2

See also A versatile and customizable low-cost 3D-printed open standard for microscopic imaging

openFrame

PUMA

See also A Research Grade Open Source Microscope — Made with FreeCAD

Other Open Source Microscopes