Typically, if you would like to know a bit about your genetic background, you would turn to a service like 23andMe, where you give a saliva sample by spitting in a tube and mailing it off for results. However, that may soon change thanks to a London-based group of scientists, engineers, designers and educators who are on a mission to make biology available to all from anywhere. For the curious Makers, ambitious students, innovative artists and cutting-edge scientists, the team created Bento Lab, an affordable and user-friendly DNA analysis laboratory.
With Bento Lab, you can take a biological sample, extract its DNA, and conduct a simple genetic analysis. What’s really exciting is that you can do all of this from a compact-sized lab that could be used anywhere, from home to on the go. In one box, the Bento Lab combines the essential tools that scientists use every day for examining molecular biology. It contains a centrifuge that extracts DNA from a biological sample (saliva, meat, hair follicles, etc.), a thermocycler that targets a specific piece of DNA and make millions of copies and an illuminated gel unit that visualizes the DNA by size.
Whether you’re a researcher in the field, have your own personal lab, or learning in the classroom, you can now conduct a simple DNA analysis anywhere. Some use-cases of the Bento Lab include: exploring your genetic makeup; examining food at a molecular level; characterizing biodiversity; identifying species and checking DNA for sequencing. Beta testers of the Bento Lab have already used it for these various cases. The team’s YouTube page shows testimonials by field scientists looking for easy-to-carry equipment, brewers checking yeast strains, students doing hands-on projects and more.
Bento Lab comes in two variations. The Lab-Only edition is for people who have scientific experience and already own necessary lab equipment, while the Starter Kit is geared towards first-time users with its 10 successive mini-projects and additional research tools such as an informational booklet, pipettes, reagents and primer kits.
After two years of prototyping and demoing at schools, festivals and Maker Faires, the Bento Lab is ready for mass production. Head over to the Bento Lab’s Kickstarter page, where the crew is already well above their goal of $57,804. First batch of units are expected for delivery by November 2016.