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This project successfully raised its funding goal on July 23, 2010.
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OpenPCR stickers -- "I kickstarted OpenPCR!"
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A DNA origami model printed on colorful card stock - Plus stickers!
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Early bird access -- get behind the scenes months before anyone else, with access to photos, design documents, and software for the OpenPCR project. (All supporters above this level get early access as well)
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Your name laser etched on the whole first round of OpenPCR kits!
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A beautiful photo of "TV Ant Farm" by bioartist Marnia Johnston: http://tinyurl.com/marnia-bioart (Plus, your name etched on the whole first round of OpenPCR kits - all supporters above this level receive this as well)
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Your choice of 3D printed Radiolarian Protozoan -- http://bit.ly/doI1VO (4 inch diameter!!) or a 3D printed E. Coli model with flagella! -- http://bit.ly/9Ec5Dp (1 foot long!!)
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OpenPCR Kit - ALL the parts to build your own OpenPCR machine. We can send the kit to you or donate it to a needy researcher in your name!
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A beautiful DNA Lego model design by Dr. Dawei Lin, inscribed with you name and "I funded OpenPCR". Image: http://tinyurl.com/dawei-dna-openpcr
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OpenPCR Founder: We build an OpenPCR with an image of your choosing etched onto the side -- for you or to be donated to a needy researcher in your name!
Project By
http://OpenPCR.org -- Tito and Josh
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Tito Jankowski and Josh Perfetto successfully raised $12,000+ on Kickstarter for designing OpenPCR. Now their goal is to deliver 7 PCR machines to 7 schools around the world, and developing educational resources for schools. Visit us at http://openpcr.org
Hi Joel,
Thanks for the comments! I agree that tools are one piece of the puzzle. Josh and I are also support BioCurious, which is a community biotech lab in San Francisco where people can learn basic biotech skills and get advising. We think it's the combination of best tools, great education, and awesome applications that will drive the future of biotech.
Thanks!
Tito
Hey Folks,
I think your hearts are in the right place in terms of wanting to democratize molbio, but honestly, if someone wants to do some hardcore, barebones budget kitchen top biology you don't even need a thermocycling PCR machine at all.
Maybe I'm just old school, but after graduating from Stanford and working at the Carnegie Institution I was using PCR starting in 1986 without a thermocycler, and without even Taq polymerase. I had three water baths at three different temperatures, a piece of styrofoam with holes cut into it and a lab timer/stopwatch. I would move the styrofoam piece with the Eppies into first the denaturing temperature bath, then the annealing and then the extension baths. I had to periodically add new enzyme to the Eppendorf tubes as the previous enzyme was degraded by the temperatures.
In short, anyone who is serious about getting some molecular biology done can do it with super low cost tools already.......it just requires expending some low skill, but highly disciplined labor (eyes on the stop watch or book you're reading, wait for the beep, move tubes to next waterbath, reset for new cycle, cross cycle #X of list).
It is with solemn pleasure that I am 'publishing' this hitherto, amazingly secret, insanely low cost engineering design and laboratory operations protocol, the knowledge of which has clearly been suppressed by a nefarious global cabal......lazy ass, spoiled brat, scientists with ADHD ;)
As my father, who was a scientist and a doctor always said, it's a poor workman who blames his tools.
Best Regards,
Joel
@Eri at $10k I think we could make a beautifully functioning machine, and get a more solid mechanical design for the heated lid. We're looking at some networking options too which would make the machine easier to control.
@Zachary Unfortunately this is a Kickstarter limitation: http://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq#DoIHaveToPayWithAmazWhyCan%EF%BF%BDIUsePaypWhyCanKickJustTakeMyCredCardInfo - not much we can do about it :(
@Hroðgar It's been a goal of ours from the start to have OpenPCR function as a standalone machine in the most basic home lab, or be placed under the control of the sophisticated lab automation software. The latter comes down to interfaces, and we're hoping to create a REST API that makes OpenPCR easy to integrate into other software. Being open source, it should also be possible for others to add other interfaces as-needed. You also bring up the issue of robotics. I see no reason why you couldn't have robots load/unload the machine, though not sure how easy it would be for robots to open/close the lid. If you have insights on this please email me at josh@snowrise.com. I'd also point out that at 16 wells this may not be your first choice of machine for high volume robotics applications, but once we've got the basics ironed out the design could certainly be scaled up in the future.
Sorry no edit button, I meant to write how can it "benefit" not differ :O)
Very interesting idea! but how does it differ from ArrayMaker? they already have manuals software and mechanical details publicly available... http://derisilab.ucsf.edu/index.php...
At any rate I am interested in the arduino being used for diybio... good luck and keep up the good work!
Congrats. I am excited to see the next stage. I see this project as the Altair 8800 of biotech.
I would like to donate using PayPal, it's not listed as an option.
Congratulations^2! I didn't know how a biotech project would be perceived on kickstarter, but surpassing the project goal so quickly shows not only that you rock but that others agree. I'm so happy for you! What will you do if you reach $10k?
Congratulations on hitting the goal! My wife teaches biotech courses as part of an applied science degree and the students aren't allowed near the $18K machine the school has. This has the potential to transform the learning environment.
I tried to finish off the goal but I somehow miss-calculated the amount. Someone will have to donate the last $9. With 35 days to do I think we'll make it.
@Cory I know almost all the LavaAmp folks personally and have the utmost respect for them and their machine. I actually don't think the two approaches are competitive. LavaAmp has the benefit of being low power, and thus more suitable for battery powered, hand-held units. OpenPCR has the benefit of using standard easy to use PCR tubes and being able to execute arbitrary, computer-controlled PCR programs, thus being more suitable for general purpose/laboratory use. I also see the greatest advantage of OpenPCR as being hackability - as an open source project we are providing the foundation for others to do more, and I'd like to see the LavaAmp go open source as well.
The PCR at Home method works (and is the way PCR was first done in 1983) but is not a serious alternative. Regulating water baths accurately is actually not trivial, and moving tubes manually for 1-2 hours is time consuming and not particularly repeatable. It can be a science fair project but no serious user of PCR is going to do this.
Regarding patents, the PCR patent expired in 2005, so is no longer an issue for building PCR machines. Regarding the wood case, plastic/metal commercial PCR machines, like most all surfaces, are crawling with bacteria. Our wood case is as well. What allows for accurate, repeatable PCR results is not keeping the machine sterile, but preventing contamination when loading the PCR tubes. That's more a function of working with a clean surface (an ethanol spray helps disinfect), wearing gloves, working in a draft-free environment, and most importantly using good technique, than it is using expensive equipment.
-Josh
Have you considered your "competition"? What would your system accomplish that other low-cost alternatives can't? I'm particularly curious about how your machine will be better/cheaper/faster/simpler than the method put forth in "PCR at Home" from Scientific American or the LavaAmp or similar devices.
references:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm...
http://lavaamp.wordpress.com/2010/01/22/lavaamp/
also
http://makezine.com/07/fingerprinting/
Why I "invested". 1) I like the idea. 2) if it works a $400 PCR machine would be great! 3) Taq is out of patent (according to my Googling) and I imagine that "certain people" have this cloned and can produce mL's of the stuff (low grade but perfect for hacking) for next to nothing (less than 1/1000th of a mL is used in a PCR reaction) if they have a reason to produce it/give it away. 4) If (3) works those who work in labs can gain access to cheap taq because there is a bigger market/supply base, this would be ideal for routine colony screens etc that are a waste of "good" Taq. 5) labs often have lots of general PCR buffer and MgCl; once again if there was an easy way to give this away they may may do so, who knows? The PCR primers are not too expensive, but the dNTPs do cost a little money. Once again PCR tubes etc seem more expensive than they should be. On the Gel box thing, they are really expensive, $500 is actually pretty sweet, the do it yourself one is much cheaper anyway! Just my 2 cents.
I am sorry to spoil the party, but I have some serious doubts about your project. You also developed the Open Gel box which sells for: 50? No! 100? No! but 500 $! For a simple gel box you calculate 500 $ (kit 250), but a PCR thermocycler should run for 400$? The price margin is not realistic. By far! Even as kit. And if you compare it to real market thermocyclers, which you can get from 2000$, instead of your claimed 4000$, taken into account that the whole project will likely end up around 1000$ isn't worth doing! One thing that makes the real devices so expensive are patent fees! And you don't account for them! Selling the device would even be illegal. Only building would be legal for the individual researcher. And then they would still need all the chemicals. And if you take the cost of them into account (primer, polymerase), plus the lab equipment necessary for reproducible PCR, whether the price of the thermocycler is 500$ or 3000$ doesn't matter AT ALL!
This- taken together with your detailed "business-plan" aka "The money will go towards R&D, third party testing, and optimization." Simply my impression is, that you are trying to make money off OpenSource without really knowing what your doing. Why 6000$? Why does third party testing cost money (your friend in the lab just giving it a try)? What exactly is "R&D"?
And last: you build the prototype out of wood? PCR is extremely sensitive to the smallest organic impurities, why did you guys make a case out of wood? Makes not the slightest sense to me. Sorry.
Thanks for all the support guys!
@Mitch great point, some of the hardware and software such as the PID control algorithm is complex and could benefit the rest of the Arduino community as well. We'll keep that in mind as we document this. We plan to provide kits which could be used as a hardware/software project teaching tool as well.
You guys are welcome in Australia anytime :)
great concept, am working on a biotech project as well @ greenstonepatent.com and am interested in DIYer's opinions.... keep on rockin
@OpenPCR Team - I love the project, sounds really interesting. By the way, you have two $512 donate levels. I'm assuming you meant to have a $256 and a $512. Just a heads up. I'm following your project.
I wonder if this wouldn't be best as a teaching tool. Not the device itself, but the building of it. If you can program the Arduino to get the cycling right, you've got the theory of PCR down pretty solid. It would be great to have more engineering/comp sci students who understand a bit more about molecular biology. The center where I work has a lot of them and we spend a lot of time inventing the common vocabulary we all need to communicate.
An undergraduate team could really make a neat project out of this.
Dave - I agree with you that reagent cost is another factor, though I'm not sure the primary audience of this machine is going to keep it running 40 hours/week which changes the math a little, and for some users simply leasing may not be an option.
We're trying to serve new groups of users, and I think you're right that as this new type of demand arises some new supply will as well. We're already seeing that in the DIYbio community where I know some efforts are underway to test low-cost polymerases including ones that can be shipped at room temperature and retail these at the prices and quantities appropriate.
I also think there's opportunities for us to reduce cost via hardware and software. For example with the 2 C/s ramp time we are targeting, you can get the same amplification with less polymerase compared with what you'd get with a slower eBay clunker, due to less enzyme deactivation. Integrated software can better calculate the amount of enzyme you actually need based on the specifics of your reaction and hardware.
I think there's some opportunity around optimizing protocols like this -- in well funded labs today people often just want to get a reaction to work and then they'd prefer to spend time on their project rather than figure out ways to save on PCR. Less well funded users will have different incentives and I expect we'll see further innovation here as these new users collaborate. -Josh
Question: Isn't the biggest expense in PCR the operating costs in terms of supplies and reagents and the like? I don't want to get down on the project, because I'd love to see a device like this for the developing world, but a $4,000 unit on an equipment lease is only about $75 a month. That's about 1/10th what I think you'd pay to keep it stocked for use 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.
Do you have a plan for resolving the supply cost and other TCO factors? The answer might be that, at scale (given that this would be accessible to any doctor's office and such), the cost of supplies would fall as demand for them rose to a point where a large enough market of competitors arose.
Again, love the idea. I think you should go forward, and when I get paid, I think I'll kick in a pledge. Definitely would like to see this succeed.
since tony helped us out with one of our projects, we asked him what project he'd like to see get some support, and he sent us your way. awesome idea, good luck!