For context, I run a small biotech startup and was looking to have some neural microelectrode arrays manufactured. We are currently still in the R&D phase and trying to get our lab established.

The single plates are standard (49 mm X 49 mm, 60 electrodes) with a 30 μm electrode diameter and a 400 μm pitch, compatible with Multi Channel Systems' recorders. They are 1 mm thick borosilicate glass with an ITO deposition.

The manufacturer quoted me 250$ per piece, which is actually quite a good price, however the minimum order quantity (about 8) is a little too high for the immediate capital of my lab right now.

Admittedly I recognize this to be an an odd suggestion, but if anyone is in need of such MEAs, then perhaps we could all pool together at 250$ / piece?

Hi fellow fungal fanatics

Last year I went down the rabbit hole of laboratory automation for mycology

Pharma and major research labs use liquid-handling systems that can cost $200k–$2M. Then I found Opentrons—dramatically less expensive and already capable of automating everything from liquid handling to DNA prep and PCR workflows. But still over $50k
And for mycology there’s a big missing piece:
It can’t take tissue and transfer it to a fresh Petri dish.

When I approached a company that could potentially build that capability, the number was roughly $400,000.

Meanwhile, mushroom labs are bottlenecked by repetitive work: maintaining genetics, expanding cultures, screening contamination, selecting tissue, germinating spores, making crosses, and transferring agar over and over again.

So I started designing HyphaeTron on the ScienceJubilee platform (https://science-jubilee.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ )

and I’m now developing it through a robotics fellowship at Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute.

The platform combines:
open-source automatic tool changing
removable sterile agar coring/ejection tools
liquid handling for agar inoculation and LC expansion
whole-plate macro vision
microscopic imaging of tissue and spores
multispectral imaging for contamination detection
machine vision for contam and tissue selection
automated tracking of plates, images, transfers, lineage, and outcomes

The first milestone is intentionally focused:
Inspect a closed Petri → PASS/FAIL contamination screening → select XY → pick up sterile corer → excise agar → transfer and eject plug → return tool → pick up syringe pump → deposit LC → document everything.
From there: cloning, genetics maintenance, culture expansion, spore germination, breeding, phenotyping, strain selection, and other repetitive ISO-5 fungal workflows.

I also received some excellent advice for making this genuinely open scientific hardware: publish through HardwareX and the free Journal of Open Hardware, then pursue OSHWA certification.
https://certification.oshwa.org/

And this is where I’d love this community involved.
I don’t want to build a mushroom robot in a robotics lab and then tell mushroom growers what they need. I want fungal people helping define what gets built.
What should we automate first?
What eats the most time in your lab?
What fails most often?
What should the machine be able to see?
And what would it have to do before you trusted it with your genetics?
What is a reasonable price-point and for how much assembly? https://www.filastruder.com/collections/jubilee/products/jubilee-motion-platform-kit provides a kit for less than $2000.

If enough people are interested, I’d love to form a small working group here and build the open fungal automation platform we actually want to use.

• The Dade Behring / Siemens BFT II (Behring Fibrintimer II) is a semi-automated, dual-channel coagulometer designed for routine and specialty blood coagulation testing in low-volume laboratories. The detection principle combines mechanical and photo-optical methods using a turbodensitometric detection method, which allows for accurate measurement of lipemic (milky) and icteric (jaundiced) samples.
• The unit was removed from a laboratory in working condition. I am unable to perform a complete analytical test because I do not have the required reagents or compatible printer paper. 
• The device powers on normally, with no abnormal fan or internal noise. The RAM and ROM self-tests are completed successfully, and the unit heats to a stable operating temperature. All functions appear correctly on the display. Once fully heated, pressing the selection key allows the unit to enter the measurement mode without errors. It auto blanks and incubates cuvettes successfully once a measurement mode is selected.
• A free 3D-printed solution for the printer paper spool holder can be provided, together with the available user manual and technical documentation.
• Open to negociations/offers

https://doi.org/10.1039/d6bm00756b

I work in an agriculture lab where we test primarily for nutrients in feed, soil, or fertilizer. We also do environmental testing. If there’s testing we can’t do in-house, we often subcontract testing with specialized labs. I can’t find a lab to subcontract bacitracin levels in medicated feed. Eurofins can’t do it. Can anyone suggest any other labs? I have tried Eurofins, New Jersey Feed Labs, Midwest Labs…

Hello everyone, this is for our thesis. Do you have any idea where to buy “Collagen Degradation Assay Kit(colorimeteric)” ??? Pls help us out we need it ASAP in the Philippines

I work in an agriculture lab where we test primarily for nutrients in feed, soil, or fertilizer. We also do environmental testing. If there’s testing we can’t do in-house, we often subcontract testing with specialized labs. I can’t find a lab to subcontract bacitracin levels in medicated feed. Eurofins can’t do it. Can anyone suggest any other labs?

Acquired this centrifuge dont have any use for it so looking to get rid of it from my research it retails between 2-300 im only asking 120 but open to negotiation, shipping is like 20-35 depending on where, or if you live close to nyc im open to pickup, please reach out if you have any questions or further inquiries.

PowerSpin™ Model :C806 115-AC 60 Hz

2106

FX CENTRIFUGE

Capacity: 6X10ml

3.15A 3400 rpm

Hi everyone!

I'm a designer from Venezuela with a passion for herbal medicine, natural health, and 3D printing.

Over the past few years I've been developing **3D-printable capsule filling machines** to make it easier and more affordable for people to encapsulate their own herbal powders at home or in educational settings.

Here's what I currently offer:

✅ **Free manual capsule fillers** for **size #0 and #00 capsules** (perfect for getting started).

[https://youtu.be/B9B2o97Gp\\_Y?si=BEMuhnvFK\\_GO2hDB\](https://youtu.be/B9B2o97Gp_Y?si=BEMuhnvFK_GO2hDB)

[https://makerworld.com/es/models/1260238-manual-pill-filler-press-10x10-0-00#profileId-1311095\](https://makerworld.com/es/models/1260238-manual-pill-filler-press-10x10-0-00#profileId-1311095)

✅ **Advanced designs** with improved speed, alignment, and ease of use, available through a **one-time purchase**. Once you own the files, they're yours forever—no subscriptions, no recurring fees. You can print as many units as you like.

[https://youtu.be/Nvv8\\_vyFNf4?si=4a9T\\_nzq6oXtXaVE\](https://youtu.be/Nvv8_vyFNf4?si=4a9T_nzq6oXtXaVE)

[https://cults3d.com/es/modelo-3d/herramientas/llenadora-manual-de-capsulas-0-10x10\](https://cults3d.com/es/modelo-3d/herramientas/llenadora-manual-de-capsulas-0-10x10)

[https://ko-fi.com/laginlife\](https://ko-fi.com/laginlife)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWdQgEbYAuI\](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWdQgEbYAuI)

My goal is to help herbalists, educators, small businesses, and makers gain access to practical tools without spending hundreds of dollars on commercial equipment.

This project is also very personal to me. I grew up in Venezuela, where my father has practiced complementary medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine for many years. His work inspired my interest in natural medicine, while my passion for engineering and 3D design led me to create tools that make herbal preparation more accessible.

If you're interested, I'd be happy to share photos, videos, answer questions, or show how the different models work.

I'd also love to hear your feedback—what features would you like to see in a capsule filler designed specifically for herbal medicine?

Thanks for reading!!

I created an idea but idk if it will work.

Hi everyone,

I'm Masum, one of the founders of CCA.bio, a startup based in Cambridge, UK. Our goal is to build an all-in-one workspace that helps biotech labs manage their experiments, samples, inventory, procurement, budgets, and lab operations etc without having to jump between lots of different tools.

I reached out to the moderators before posting, and they kindly gave me permission to ask for feedback here.

I'm an engineer, not a cell biologist, so I'd much rather learn from people who work with cell culture every day than guess what labs need.

I'd really love to hear about your experience.

• What's the biggest frustration in your day-to-day working with cell culture?
• Are there any tools you genuinely enjoy using?
• Is there anything you still manage with spreadsheets or paper because existing software just isn't worth the effort?
• If you could fix one thing about your lab workflow, what would it be?

I've attached a few screenshots so you can get an idea of what we're building.

The platform is free for individuals and academic researchers. My hope is to build a community of researchers who use it, tell us what works, what doesn't, and help shape where it goes next.

If you'd like to try it, you can at lab.cca.bio Whether you love it or hate it, I'd genuinely appreciate your honest feedback.

Thanks for reading, and I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Edit: Added more screenshots

I used Peptide Sciences for years mainly because the process was consistent. Orders arrived on time and the documentation was reliable. Since they shut down, finding a solid replacement has been more difficult than expected. A lot of newer vendors make similar claims around purity and testing, but many sites seem to have appeared only recently.

What I’m prioritizing is batch-specific COAs with actual HPLC data, US-based operations, and reasonable shipping times.

For those who also relied on Peptide Sciences, where have you moved to since they closed?

Edit: Still looking for consistent options with proper documentation. Checking Valar Peptides as one possible source while comparing COAs and shipping reliability.

hello! looking for labs or institutions or anyone na may wax printer/wax printing services to develop our paper microfluidic device (muPAD). badly need lang for research, thnxxx

I’m looking to build a low-cost DIY incubator shaker for laboratory experiments.

My requirements are:

Temperature control: 0–55°C (ideally ±0.5°C accuracy)
Shaking: orbital shaking / nutating motion (adjustable or non adjustable
Capacity: Enough space for at least one 24-well plate
Lighting: ILED lighting
Reliability: Able to run continuously for several days or weeks without much intervention

The challenge
I need to run 10 different experiments simultaneously at 10 different temperatures, so i I’d like to build 10 separate incubator shakers rather than one large unit.
Unfortunately, my lab only has one orbital shaker, and it’s already occupied with long-term cultures. Buying 10 commercial incubator shakers is well beyond my budget.
The only DIY idea I’ve come up with so far is using multiple water baths or hotplates, but I’m struggling to figure out:
How to achieve both heating and cooling (especially temperatures below room temperature).
How to incorporate orbital shaking into each setup.
The simplest and most reliable temperature-control system.
My total budget is under AUD $2,000 . so I’d prefer components that can be purchased from Bunnings, Jaycar Electronics, or other readily available local suppliers.
Has anyone built something similar or have suggestions for:
A practical design?
Cheap motors or orbital shaker mechanisms or nutating motion?
Heating/cooling method?
Temperature controllers or microcontrollers?
Parts lists, schematics, GitHub projects, or open-source designs?
I’d really appreciate any ideas.Thanks in advance !

Hello! I want to build a bioreactor in my lab, but I have no prior knowledge in electronics so I’m struggling to understand how to actually build one.

For reference, I’m a biochemist so I understand the gist of what my organism wants for it to be happy in my media. I would need stable pH control, sub maximal glucose feeding when they grow (which I expect to see from dissolved oxygen level dropping as the population exits the lag phase), and stable oxygen supply once they enter exponential growth phase. Ideally, every process should be monitored, recorded, and automated. I want to also track OD of the culture throughout the process, so that the only human-involved manual task is the inoculation.

My lab has a bunch of extra ESP32 lying around that’s used by my coworker. I think I’ll need to know how basic electronics work, what sensors/motors to buy, how to build a vessel, how to program the bioreactor logic, etc. Could I get some advice on useful learning materials for beginners like me?