History

The Biomaker initiative was established at the University of Cambridge in 2017 as an interdisciplinary programme aimed at fostering collaboration and innovation at the intersection of biology, engineering, and digital technology. It provided a platform for students, researchers, and professionals from diverse backgrounds to collaborate on creative projects that leverage open technologies for biological research and education. The initiative offered participatory learning and experimentation, shared workshops and access to tools and materials. Participants engaged in challenges and competitions to create cost-effective, open-source biological devices and solutions, ultimately advancing scientific knowledge and accessibility in the field.

The Biomaker initiative was inspired by over a decade of running interdisciplinary student teams for the iGEM competition and research challenges at the University of Cambridge. Joint projects were always creative and exciting exercises, where new ideas were bounced around. However, new ideas require testing, and sometimes, custom instrumentation. Software is often the ‘glue’ that holds together new experiments with living systems, commodity electronics and user interfaces. However, while biologists would be most familiar with the target biology, their relative lack of programming experience could limit full co-development of user interfaces and control systems. Biomaker sought to provide access to simple tools and enable the involvement of non-programmers in development of DIY bioinstrumentation.