[BBF Standards] BioHackathon

[John Cumbers]

this sounds fun...
also, just because a protocol takes a long time, doesn't mean that it can't
be sped up.  I recently switched to a new Chip-chip protocol that was
published in 06, it changed the length of the protocol from 3 days to 3
hours (http://www.citeulike.org/user/sebastien_vigneau/article/1256832).
The reason, using a different reagent for purifying the DNA (chelax-100) and
using a different piece of equipment for the antibody incubation (an ultra
sonic water bath).

My point being that molecular biology can be sped up if needed, and perhaps
the need and way to speed it up could come from such a hackathon...
molecular cloning still takes a long time, maybe we could even offer a prize
to anyone able to find new ways to speed it up...

cheers,
John


On Feb 8, 2008 10:45 PM, Bryan Bishop <kanzure at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Friday 08 February 2008, "Jason Kelly" <jasonk at mit.edu> wrote:
> > I think the idea of a "hackathon" (e.g. get a lot of people in one
> > place at one time and write code until you pass out) would be a great
> > thing for wet lab biology some day.  However, the slow timescale of
> > laboratory work currently makes this pretty unreasonable, so maybe
> > something in between would be a design-a-thon.  A bunch of people in
> > a room designing biological systems, sharing ideas, debugging, etc...
> > just need a bunch of computers and whiteboards....
>
> Ah, yes, I am all for a design-a-thon -- that's just as good. Don't have
> to concern ourselves waiting for results.
>
> > or maybe there's some biology that could be done on that timescale,
> > would be interested to hear suggestions.
>
> Maybe real-time work can be done when we have results on the order of
> minutes and seconds with labs-on-a-chip, but otherwise I would have to
> agree with your assessment of the situation. What sort of biology
> *couldn't* be done without enough resources laying around, a wonderland
> of supplies stockpiled and horded together for one major event each
> year? All participants would have to be told to come with a few ideas,
> and I am sure that when they start setting up, naturally people will
> gravitate to those experiments which seem to be the most interesting ;)
>
> - Bryan
> ________________________________________
> Bryan Bishop
> http://heybryan.org/
>
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-- 
John Cumbers,  Graduate Student
Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry
Biology and Medicine
Brown University, Box G-W
Providence, Rhode Island, 02912, USA
Tel USA: +1 401 523 8190,  Fax: +1 401 863-2166
UK to USA: 0207 617 7824
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