Introductions and Volunteering with BwoB
Danny
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Introduction to BwoB
We have a new lab space in Long Island City (NYC) and equipment is gradually being set up there. Check out the website and/or sign up for our mailing list for more general updates.
As you may know, Biotech Without Borders is an entirely volunteer-run organization with no plans to change this structure. Our officers are a core group of volunteers who have developed relationships with each other and are currently tasked with formalizing the documents we need to operate. However formal documents are no substitute for building relationships with each other.
Purpose of the thread
New community members join the Loomio at some frequency and I am excited to learn more about you and hopefully see you in the lab when you are able to come. I see everyone associated with Biotech Without Borders as a community from which folks may emerge to take on responsibilities necessary for our continuation. Knowing each other's skills and interests helps us understand what our collective power can be. Importantly I want our community to also forge connections between each other and imagine what they can do with the assistance of each other.
Previously folks were invited to contribute to building a shared agenda and follow along with our activities on our Community Sheet. It wasn't used as much as I would like and there was some chaos on Google docs which led me to migrate to this platform which affords more moderation tool and is better aligned with the idea of being a collective. Meeting notes are now held here accessible by members.
If you have questions for the group please start a poll!
If you want to volunteer with something specifically let us know in a comment. This might be a good way of learning some of the Loomio ropes to begin (see the help thread for more information).
I will be reaching out on this thread with projects that need volunteers that would be appropriate for newcomers to join. But please keep your eye our for threads or polls marked as "opportunities" for other places you may be able to help. These posts may be moved to their own threads as appropriate.
Community introductions
Many of you have told me about yourself but there are others here who may be interested to know more about you. So please introduce yourself below in a comment. I will pin them to the timeline and you are welcome to edit them as you see fit. You are also able to edit a profile (which is standard across any Loomio group you join since we are using their server, but may disappear if we migrate to our own server) using the "Edit Profile" menu in the sidebar.
Smith W.L. J, MD, FRSC, FRSPH Thu 29 Dec 2022 4:59PM
Hello everyone. My name is Smith W.L. Jheng, a trasnlational scientist from Taiwan. I serve as principal research scientist at Massachusetts Laboratory for Engineering Medicine and Critical Data. I'm now planning to establish an organoiod & microenvironment construction working group. Hope to contribute and learn from you.
Vikram Krishnamoorthy Fri 27 Jan 2023 7:38PM
Hi everyone - it's been a while! My name is Vikram. I'm currently a software engineer at a real world data clinical trials startup. My academic background is in biology and business, and I was formerly the founder of Etcetera Bio, a synthetic biology startup, which is actually how I first got involved with Biotech without Borders back in 2019. I'm currently in Oakland and a member at CCL - but am always excited to help out and volunteer with BWOB however I can.
Sean Doyle Thu 9 Feb 2023 4:04PM
Hello All! My name is Sean Doyle, and I am currently a junior majoring in computer science at NYU. Most of my background is in embedded systems within robotics, and AI/Machine Learning but I would like to get into synthetic biology and biotech so I'm hoping to volunteer on some projects that can both make use of my skills and teach me more about the biotech sector. Feel free to reach out to me with any ideas or projects I may be able to help out on!
Lizeth Arciniegas Wed 22 Mar 2023 7:08PM
Hello everyone! My name is Lizeth Arciniegas, an Environmental Engineer with a postgraduate diploma in Biotechnology. I'm from Colombia, but right now I'm living in Toronto, Canada. I have studied Artificial Intelligence and Data Mining and I'm passionate about it. I'm hoping to volunteer for projects related to any of those fields. I hope to contribute to this team, Feel free to reach out!
Imran Ozair Fri 19 May 2023 6:34PM
Hi! I'm Imran, a sophomore at Rutgers University in New Jersey. I'm studying general biology but I came across this group and I hope that I'll be able to learn about Biotechnology as it's a field of study that I am potentially considering majoring in. I'm not entirely sure how helpful I can be at this stage, but I'm open to any kind of opportunities. Nice to meet you all and thank you.
Emily Garfield Tue 27 Jun 2023 9:23PM
Hello! I'm Emily Garfield, I'm a visual artist and I run a virtual mixer to connect scientists and artists (the next one is August 6 if you're interested). I will be collaborating on a social event at Biotech Without Borders next month and am looking forward to meeting the community!
Sophia Xu Thu 13 Jul 2023 4:01PM
Hi everyone! I'm Sophia, a Co-Founder and the Microbiologist Lead at CarbonBridge! We are a pre-seed startup using a biological process to target the e-fuel market, specifically with the shipping industry. We're at Biotech Without Borders to conduct some proof-of-concept experiments and we're really excited to be here. Please say hi- would love to talk more!
Pri Thu 20 Jul 2023 9:39PM
Hello all! I'm Priscilla Stadler, an interdisciplinary visual artist working with environmental themes, such as Newtown Creek, NYC's largest Superfund site (and a "neighbor" of BWOB in Long Island City). Recently I made my first zine ("Tales from the Creek: The Adventures of Mo Mussel") and am interested in collaborating with scientists & artists to make more. Looking forward to connecting!
Martin sang Wed 13 Sep 2023 3:06PM
Hello all! I'm Martin sang, a reasearch scientist, working with molecular Entomology and parasitology, currently, I'm pursuing my masters in biotechnology. Looking forward to connecting with all of you.
Thomas Alexander Fri 29 Sep 2023 3:47PM
Hey Everyone! I'm Thomas Alexander, an Austrian-American Biotechnology Master's Student currently studying in Vienna. I grew up in WNC did my undergrad in Bio-engineering with a bioprocessing focus at NC State.
For the last couple of years (~5) I've been an researcher and an advocate for both Open/Community/Decentralized Biotechnology and transitioning from our current petrochemical based economy to an equitable and sustainable circular economy based on biomass. (Which have a lot of overlap)
I'm a huge believer in the power of technology development as political action, especially through biotech. To those ends I am currently the team lead for the the BOKU Vienna iGEM team and our "HormOWN" project - a proof of concept for an "Open Source Fermentation Process for Steroid Hormones" which I am currently looking for non-profit partners to help host after Oct.
When I'm not wrapped up in iGEM land I write for Bioeconomy.xyz on Medium, am a member of couple of industry working groups, follow/support the Open Science movement, attend/possibly speak at conferences, and contribute to a Climate Synbio collective called ValleyDAO.
If you ever feel like chatting about anything just let me know and we can schedule a call on Google Cal!
PaolaDM Wed 6 Mar 2024 2:38AM
Greetings, I am Paola Di Maio, a systems engineer, former science and technology correspondent, turned data scientist and eventually researcher, doing applied plant biology for health, I am based in UK, Taiwan, and Europe. Interested in open science and sustainable entrepreneurship, hoping to contribute to the development of BwoB ecosystem in Asia and worldwide. I specialise in research ethics and can be critical of some research directions in bioengineering: When I read that brain organoids had developed eyes, I became concerned they are going to develop a mouth next, and make enquiries as to who has given the ethical approval . I stick to plant and minerals at the moment. Look forward to collaboration and exchanges and to learn from everyone.
I S Sun 31 Mar 2024 3:43PM
Good day folks, my name is Iblal, I am a Herbal Medicine student based in the UK. I have a great deal of interest in both phytochemistry and ethnopharmacology, as well as understanding how plants/herbs can be used as an alternative means of treatment for common/uncommon ailments. My current studies focus on being actively engaged in a herbal dispensary, whilst also formulating tincture based herbal medicaments. I partake in a great degree of research during my spare time, and have invested in some lab equipment in order to efficiently extract phytocompounds from herbal material, whilst experimenting with the use of natural deep eutectic solvents. I am looking forward to learning from the folks here at BwoB, as well as contributing as a valued member of this diverse community project. Would love to share my thoughts on extraction methods for herbal products as well as current research supporting this. Open-science is amazing and I feel the folks here at BwoB have done a great job at building such a rounded community network, keep it up! 🙌🏽🙌🏽
Jaime Salcedo Sun 7 Apr 2024 6:48AM
Hello BwoB community,
My name is Jaime. I've been a tattoo artist for over 13 years and a NYC firefighter for over 7 years.
About a year ago I founded Painless Picasso. An all natural, plant based cream that alleviates the pain associated with procedures such as tattooing, waxing, and laser treatments. We are now a Techstars portfolio company, signed a deal with the worlds largest e-commerce market and just finished filming for a nationally televised series.
Painless Picasso is now conducting clinical trials and is positioned to be the global all natural alternative to high dosages of pharmaceuticals currently on the market.
I've popped into BwoB a few times in the last year and love the community. I promised Dan I would become a member when I had some funds and I just made that happen. I love learning about all things science but f your'e in the all natural, plant/herb, or formulation space we should talk asap!
I'm excited to be a BwoB member and look forward to providing value to the community in any way that I can! Feel free to reach out anytime: [email protected]
Shailja Singh Thu 18 Apr 2024 3:38PM
Hello Everyone! My name is Shailja and I'm a biotech engineer and a recent biotech master's graduate based in Boston. I stumbled across the BwoB community while looking to volunteer for non-profits promoting biotech as an impactful field. I'm thrilled to have found a completely volunteer-run organization and I'm looking forward to using my expertise to contribute in any way I can.
Biotech business and management is a big part of my background, so even though I'm currently a remote volunteer, I'm more than happy to help our fellow community members with managing their research projects or providing any supplemental guidance. Danny and I also came up with a number of strategic ideas for us to provide a little more structure to the organization in terms of creating awareness amongst more people about ways in which BwoB can act as a platform for performing various biotech-related activities. I shall be creating a separate thread for the initiative and we're looking forward to receiving ideas & inputs from all our members!
Whether it's to ask for support in a particular project, clarify a technical doubt or brainstorm biotech-related ideas, please feel free to message me directly via Loomio! I'm really excited to be a part of BwoB and I hope to connect with all of you soon!
Skyler Newberry Thu 19 Sep 2024 5:23PM
Hello Everyone, my name is Skyler Newberry and I'm a Industry Scientist that's spent around 8 years in biotech labs. Past couple years I spent at Abbott working with their Clinical Trial Team programming validated scripts in R. I'm currently Starting Bella Biologics, a company working on In-Vivo Non-Viral Genetic editing of B-Cells to express custom Antibodies. Excited to be part of the community here, please reach out if you need any help regarding immunology, Data Science, or Genetics.
Anastasiya Yatsuk Fri 6 Dec 2024 7:21PM
Hello! My name is Anastasiya(Nastya) Yatsuk and I am a new member in the lab. My background is in art and fashion design but I have been dabbling in creative biology for the last 3 years. Most of my expertise is in biomaterials research and I am currently working on GFP extraction/purification to use the pigment produced by protein to dye the materials. Would anyone be interested in joining me in the lab, would love to have a partner given the fact that I am new in the lab and lack of wet lab experience in general. Also would love to meet anyone in person in the lab even if you are working on your own stuff! Nastya
Patrick Ferner · Tue 15 Nov 2022 2:36PM
Hello everyone! I'm Patrick Ferner. I'm a computer scientist with an interest in biotechnology, currently living in Jersey City. I am looking to contribute any way I can, and I'm excited to learn/meet people along the way!