ChiTownBiologists!
Our first meeting of the year is tomorrow, and we couldn’t be more excited. Our theme for this even is “biomaterials,” and we’ll have bags of mycelium growing in various agricultural waste materials thanks to our friends at Ecovative’s GrowBio project. Given the right conditions, mycelium (the root-like structures of fungus) can decompose materials like corn cobs, hemp, or wood chips and serve as a useful biomaterial. We’ll have several “Bear Grow Forms” from Ecovative/GrowBio to create teddy bears that participants can take home and grow into their own mycelium bears. Feel free to bring your own molds (a cookie cutter, a small plastic container, or a silicone mold) to create your own living material in the shape(s) of your choice!
We’ll also have a DNA Playground from our friends at Amino Labs on hand to explore. The DNA Playground is a self-contained minilab that serves as an excellent educational tool and starting point for genetic engineering experiments. It has several features (incubator, cold block, hot block) that allow novices and experts alike to transfer a DNA program into non-pathogenic bacteria. Amino has sent us an “Engineer-It Kit” which we can use to program bacteria to produce various colors or scents.
Finally, we’ll be introducing some new ideas for courses, workshops and book club events for 2018. Come and help us talk about our plans for the coming year and have some fun getting your hands dirty with some biotechnology! We’ll be meeting on January 18th at 7 PM at Empirical Brewery’s Taproom at 1801 W Foster Ave.
Check out our event Meetup page and let us know you’re coming. As always, follow us on Twitter @ChiTownBio, and like our page on Facebook!