[DIYbio] Re: DIY Turbidostat

Hi jt,

thanks again for sharing your amazing project and also linking to the other turbidostats and chemostat systems from the dunham and kalvin lab. You mentioned in your Evolvinator that for anaerobic samples one could just flush the system with an anoxic gas. I don't think this will work especially working with oxygen atolerant anaerobes. I was thinking about building your system under a diy anaerobic chamber (there are lot of diy projects for those out).

Do you have any idea, papers, literature that could help me in cultivating Archeae in turbidostat system (does it make sense with an doubling time of 4h) ? Also for your problem with the formation of biofilms : there has been a patent out to solve that. They seem to use a combination of two culture vessels -  changing vessels frequently to kill of biofilm producers and dilution resistant strains. Since you used yout system at Ginko Bioworks you can not really use it for commercial interest as it is patented but mabe there is a clever design around.

I think a DIY turbidostat - especially one that enables growing bugs for thousands of generation - would be powerful in changing substrate affinities and cleaning up waste streams.

On Friday, October 28, 2011 at 5:13:03 PM UTC+2, Jt wrote:

Awesome. Thank you Cathal, Jonathan, and John.

openwetware and github seem like the right combination.

To give a full story, I work for Ginkgo BioWorks and have developed
this device for our own inhouse bug testing/polishing. Though the
current iteration is probably a little more sophisticated than a lot
of hobbyists would want to get into, there are pared down versions
which are totally within grasp. We don't have any intention of selling
the device so we want to open source it to kick start all the diy
bioers out there. So I don't know if I'll go through the lengths of
making it Sparkfun/Ponoko purchasable myself, but take Jonathan's
advice of setting it free. Also, a UBW is most definitely in the
works, which I am happy to share as well.

Look forward to the openwetware How-To and please continue posting any
suggestions you have!

jt

Also to respond to your question Cathal: a IR LED and photodiode pair
work perfectly well to measure OD and can be more accurate than a lot
of common laboratory cuvette readers, especially if you can get the
optics down (super cheap too).