Ottawa Bio Sci
Canadian Capital's Community Biology Group
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Our mission is to foster a vibrant bioscience community and advance citizen science and molecular biology education.
We believe that combining cutting-edge molecular biology research with public education has the power to create a better world and accelerate scientific progress
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News and Events
2025
April
We partnered and became a voting member of the SynBio Canada
Presented a public workshop in DNA extraction at the Library.
We got a lot of great feedback. Pictures pending.
A large number of final projects are underway. Here are some of them:
- Design a T4Ligase expressing system so we can produce the protein for restriction cloning
Restriction cloning Synthesys of Biodegradable antimicrobial bioplastics in Photosynthetic micro algae
- Design and express an Operon for degrading specific plastic. phaABC Operon_D
- Design transform express CCar9_B for production of DNA, RNAi using microfluidics or robotics.
- Start the process of designing a BsaI production to be used for MoClo for FreeGenes
- Design another plasmid for transforming plastic: NcoI_XhoI_no_HIS_no_thrombin, Demetra_T
Met with Yann De Kermadec, Enzymethic and discussed partnership and collaboration for biological products
Yann was very interested in using some of our products and participate in joint projects.
Ottawa Bio Science will have a booth at the Open Doors event at Rideau RockliffeCC
Contacted the organizers and started preparation for a potential participation during
Canadian Innovation Week hosted by the Rideau Hall Foundation
March
March Break bio for the public- Free Public Workshop scheduled for March 15 at the lab.
Designed, and built a new affordable cell lysis device.
https://github.com/AdrianMolecule/glassLysisFebruary
Valentines ideas for a pipette holder.
Quick Setup Guide:
Take a Chocolate Box (i.e. Ferrero Rocher); Eat all the chocolates; 3D Print the Pipette Hooks; Prepare an Elastic Loop; Add Foam to cushion and secure the pipettes; Place your pipettes into the hooks and check the fit and stability; Repeat ... Take a Chocolate Box…
https://github.com/AdrianMolecule/pipetteholderReclone presentation
Adrian presented the new
https://github.com/AdrianMolecule/OpenBio software to the Reclone community
Students for the MIT-HTGAA Ottawa Node please go to Ottawa Node for HTGAA Web Site for homework reviews.
MIT-HTGAA Course starts
Ottawa Bio Sci will be an official HTGAA node for the 2025 edition of MIT Media Lab of "How to Grow Almost Everything"
This is an amazing course that introduces everibody to the inner mechanisms of life.
And it's totally free!!
January
Fluorescent Cells: A Petri Dish Adventure Workshop at the library
Molecular Bio Open Source Software App
Incredibly, while Benchling and SnapGene and Geneious are used by everybody there is no OpenSource equivalent. Several of our members decided to develop an open source software called Open Bio. The first use case focuses on visualizing and checking primers for PCR and LAMP reactions.
Our current working version can load and display sequences and simulate bio operations like annealing and elongation and simple hairpins. Source code at GitHub below.
https://github.com/AdrianMolecule/OpenBio
Rideau-Rockcliffe Community Resource and incubator13.ca partnership
2024
December
Finalized testing of the accessible protocol using Agar-Agar and bouillon.
Here is the resulted culture under low UV showing super-folded GFP is expressed.
Designed and built a water bath
Tested the newly designed and built water bath. Successful in keeping a 45 Celsius constant temperature for 2 continuous days.
OS waterbath github
Created video
draft waterbath build video
Discussed with Rideau-Rockcliffe Community Resource and incubator13.ca partnership
Created several raw videos for HTGAA external community
Pork identification protocols
Start Testing HTGAA Accessible protocols
November
Ottawa Bio Science meet at University of Ottawa STEM center
Published final three pork identification protocols on protocols.io.
Solicited and received feedback from other DIY groups - Rachel Aronoff from Hackteria, Scott Pownall from Open Science Network Society and David Castillo from Glyxon labs.
Started videotape first raw cuts of HTGAA Accessible protocols
October
For LAMP assay prepare and publish the detailed protocol for pork identification protocol on protocols.io
Meet with Glyxon Bio to discuss partnership and opportunities for joint projects
Performed the meat prep protocol. No results.
Rick took pictures and will create a video
Reclone meeting and collaboration discussions with other labs
Continue to do course preparation and node handbook with HTGAA for 2025
Plan and test the next public workshop on DNA electrophoresis
September
DNA extraction workshop
Protocol, Included origami DNA and video https://mrpauller.weebly.com/blog/origami-dna
For LAMP assay prepare and publish the meat preparation protocol at protocols.io
Fab Lab Festival participation. Our booth was very busy and successful. We were filmed and interviewed. We will update the links once we obtain the material. Fab Fest
Reclone meeting
Hack613 meeting
Discuss a secondary lab location with Canadian innovation space and incubator13
Build a Cell seminars
Continue to do course preparation and node handbook with HTGAA for 2025
Includes create handbook for the nodes. Comment on the existing documents and participate in the many meetings
Test the tube rotator and iterate the design. All finished and working.
Document GitHub project and document some basic bacterial growth. Endurance test for 3 weeks passed.
Full documentation at TubeRotator
August
Prepare and acquire regents for the LAMPY assay
Continue detailed work for creating a secondary more accessible lab.
Reclone meeting and participation
Design and build a tube rotator
Create GitHub project and start documenting.
June
Dry freezing in June
Discuss/assess simple dry freezing technique as per Jennifer's paper. Shall we attempt it? It requires a long list of reagents a fast freezing device and a strong vacuum pump to attempt sublimation.
Reclone meeting and participation
Advanced discussions with other organization about partnering. Start detailed work for creating a more accessible secondary lab.
May
Document the inoculating Robot
We need to meet and document the robot as the details are still fresh.
Here is the full current documentation
https://github.com/AdrianMolecule/inoculatingRobot
Petri dish inoculated with GFP using the Inoculating Robot. Picture taken after incubation under UV light.
We will use the lessons and elements from the openFlexure project adapted to our project. It could be used for reading plaque for the HTGAA collab project.
Start literature research and design of continuous directed evolution system to implement
One of our long term intentions could become possible due to robotics. Try to identify a system that can be implemented using our implementation of pyLabRobot server.
Collab on HTGAA collab group project
Planning and start design of experiments
Design GA primers session
GA is maybe the most useful tool in engineering today so understanding it is a great skill. Bring scissors to cut DNA. Seriously...
April
Initial test the Inoculating robot
We will design several patterns.
Reclone grant proposal meeting
Discuss the potential involvement
Design the primers for plant virus LAMP kit session
Reclone presentation. From Kits to DIY
March
Presentation and discuss HTGAA collab group project
We will participate in a phage therapy research project. While the general goal is stated we need to distill that in concrete details. Major risk is availability and affordability of reagents.
Continue discussions for partnering and creating a secondary lab more accessible.
Prepare testing for inoculating robot
Select and culture the dishes and liquid culture for testing the Inoculating Robot
Work on the design of kit for LAMP
Decide on the plasmid and order it.
Cell Free Lab
Test the cell free from Kate Atamala/ U of Minesotta. The dry ice was gone by the time we got the packet. Testing result was not conclusive.
Reclone meeting
February
Approach several organization for partnering and create a secondary lab more accessible.
Reclone meeting
Discuss new presentation for the next meeting
Cell-Free Protocol
Meet to design a cell-free Python protocol for Opentrons and Opentrons tube racks.
Here are the images and files: /diybio/resources/cellfree.py:
