Feb 21, 2023
Posted by: Cameron Davidson-Pilon
We are introducing a pre-order system to help you secure your Pioreactor 20ml! We'll also be dropping the 2 Pioreactor / order limit, so you can start to really build out your biotech cluster.
Feb 02, 2023
Posted by: Cameron Davidson-Pilon
Since there are so many use-cases for the Pioreactor, we didn't want to pigeon-hole the UI to only support a single use-case. By default, the UI works great for simple cultures: yeast, algae, or bacteria, with OD readings, maybe dosing, and maybe LEDs. But users are already extending the Pioreactor to do more: more pumps, and more sensors. This is great - we're ecstatic! But how can users adapt the UI to support their extensions?
Dec 21, 2022
Posted by: Cameron Davidson-Pilon
The Pioreactor has onboard heating and thermoregulation. This is great for most microbes who enjoy a slightly warmer than room temperature environment. However, sometimes you want a cooler environment. The Pioreactor can't create produce a cool environment, but you can place the Pioreactor in a cold environment and then let the onboard heating heat to a precise temperature.
Dec 08, 2022
Posted by: Cameron Davidson-Pilon
We think biology products should be accessible. As lifelong biology enthusiasts, we hit a brick wall with other bioreactors on the market. Commercial bioreactors were out of our reach, with high prices and unnecessary features that were actually a liability. Unable to monitor our microbial cultures efficiently, our projects stalled. That's why we created Pioreactor.
Oct 24, 2022
Posted by: Cameron Davidson-Pilon
We love compactness. We love when things just fit together. We love protocols! We love open source design! Which is why we put all four of these ideas into our new Pioreactor dosing platform.
Oct 04, 2022
Posted by: Cameron Davidson-Pilon
Directed evolution is the technique of controlling an organism's evolutionary trajectory such that its descendants have more of a desired properties. Most often, the engineers will have a strict control of the organism's environment. By controlling the environment and responding to the organism's simultaneous adaption, an organism can be directed to have novel or desirable properties. In particular, the directed evolution of microorganisms is more easily achieved due to their short generation time, high cell density, and isolated environments.
Sep 26, 2022
Posted by: Cameron Davidson-Pilon
With the end of September approaching, we're on track to soon assemble and send off our first batch of Pioreactors — and it also marks the end of my internship! In this blog post, I'll discuss my experiences over the summer and announce some fun projects we've completed in the last few weeks.
Aug 29, 2022
Posted by: Cameron Davidson-Pilon
One of the greatest strengths of the Pioreactor its modularity; both on the hardware and software sides. Previously, you've seen how we can add physical pieces like pumps and LEDs to customize your Pioreactor. To use these pieces (or even change how we use basic actions), we can create and install plugins!
Jul 18, 2022
Posted by: Cameron Davidson-Pilon
Inspired by this paper by Knutson et al. (2018), we created a new temperature automation that cycles temperature as a sine wave between 30°C and 40°C over 24 hours. With this new automation, and in our expanded Pioreactor/turbidostat system, we grew some yeast over the weekend – and the findings are quite interesting!
