It’s a delight to see OpenPCR already on so many desktops! Josh and I spent the past year staring at mostly-disassembled prototypes, with wires all over the place. It makes it all worthwhile to see everyone assembling their kits, posting pictures of them, and having a blast doing so. At the end of this post, there are several pictures that I thought you’d enjoy — OpenPCR around the world!
Here are a couple of examples of what’s going on with OpenPCR just two weeks after shipping:
- A high school in Hawaii is testing for genetically-modified foods, with plans to upgrade to identifying and tracking non-native species.
- A college professor in Missouri is booting up her biotech class + gel electrophoresis and has successfully amplified DNA
- A biotech company in Utah has amplified DNA to successfully test OpenPCR
- OpenPCR assembled by Singularity University students in Mountainview, California
How you can help
Over the past year, we’ve designed, engineered, and shipped our first product. We’re now seeking seed funding to take our company to the next level (and build some more awesome stuff). If you know someone who would be interested in investing in OpenPCR, we’d love an introduction. Email me (tito@openpcr.org) or send your friends to AngelList.
Also, note that we’ve raised the price of OpenPCR from $512 to $599. This allows us to get OpenPCR out to distributors around the world — if you’ve got a shop, give us a holler (contact@openpcr.org).
Join the OpenPCR Google group to chat. We’ve got some great conversations brewing and we’d love to hear from you.
Tito
From the OpenPCR Blog
Bio: MAKE citizen science author Tito Jankowski works on making biotech easier to do, including developing open source tools for gel electrophoresis and a thermal cycler. Got other citizen science or garage biotech projects you want to hear more about? Comment on this article in comments or email him at tito at openpcr.org
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