BioHack Academy

The age of personal biotechnology is upon us! Engineers have turned biology in a design discipline and it's now up to us to shape it's applications. After completing the BioHack Academy you can grow your own fuel, food, filaments, farmaceuticals, fragances, fungi and much more funky bio stuff at home. We'll teach you how to join the bio revolution and build your own biofactory using a Fablab, Maker/Hackspace or other shared machine shop.

Learn how to design, grow and extract your own biomaterials using only Open Source hardware you fabricate yourself. Whether it's a new type of bio ink, bio polymer or bio fuel, we'll show you can grow it yourself and share the results with others.

For starters, you may choose a product from our collection, such as violacein (purple dye), cellulose (biopolymer), ethanol fuel (yeast fermentation), spirulina algae (super food), lactic acid (yoghurt), penicilin (antibiotic), kombucha (drink), acidic acid (vinegar), citric acid (aspergillis), mycelium (filaments) and/or tell us about your own living material of choice.

BioHack Academy video channel
BioHack Academy Github pages

Apply for BioHack Academy 2023

The BioHack Academy takes 10 weeks. In 2023, the programme will start on February 27th and end on May 5th. Participants are expected to be present at Waag on Mondays and Tuesdays. The academy is English spoken.

Apply for the BioHack Academy. 

Read the general terms & conditions.

How we get it done

In just 2,5 months we will build up our own biofactories together. Every week a lecture will be given and recorded. You will also have access to the Amsterdam Open Wetlab and Fablab during 2 days a week to build equipment, conduct experiments and get the support you need.

The lectures will give you insight in what kind of tool we are building and it's usefulness in the lab. You may choose to either replicate the design of the tutor, improve it or build your own device from scratch. It's up to you how sophisticated things may get.

All students are required to keep track of their progress on the BioHack Academy wiki, allowing to learn from each other. Two weeks in advance of each lecture students will receive a recommended materials list and access to the tutor's design, allowing for enough time to purchase items or to seek alternatives.

The program is a hands-on bootcamp. By the end of the course you and your fellow class mates will be turned into fully equiped biohackers, capable of growing a broad range of biomaterials. Ready to continue production independently at home.

What's next

After the Academy has been completed, you will receive a BHA Biofactory certificate. The project Github and video channel are open to the public to share the results with the Open Source biotech community at large.

In possession of your own biofactory, you may continue to advance your production skills, engage in directed evolution experiments, produce biogas, purify water, bioremidate poluted soil, just to give a few. Bio has no limits!

BioHack Acadamy is part of Hybrid Lab Network, which has received funding from the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme under grant agreement no. 341166.