hi all, one last thing from CCL - they now have a lab robot! if you're interested in learning more about this robot and possibly being a part of its assembly, operation, and programming, come to the protein modeling meetup this fri 1/29 at 7PM: http://www.meetup.com/Counter-Culture-Labs/events/228129282/ . in addition to protein modeling, this meetup will include discussion, plans, and next steps for the robot. Forwarded conversation Subject: [CCL] CCL has a lab robot! Now what? ------------------------ From: *Patrik D'haeseleer* &lt;patrikd(a)gmail.com&gt; Date: Mon, Jan 18, 2016 at 9:34 PM To: &quot;cclmembers(a)googlegroups.com&quot; &lt;cclmembers(a)googlegroups.com&gt;om>, " counterculturelabs(a)googlegroups.com&quot; &lt;counterculturelabs(a)googlegroups.com&gt;om>, &quot;cultlabsboard(a)googlegroups.com&quot; &lt;cultlabsboard(a)googlegroups.com&gt; As most of you probably have heard, CCL acquired a large OpenTrons <http://opentrons.com/>lab robot (pics below), thanks to our friends at Arcturus Bio <https://www.arcturus.io/>. Which is awesome, except that we don't really have space for it, or anyone who knows how to run it at the moment. :-D If we are going to keep this beast, we should also put together a core group of people interested in care and feeding of a lab robot. *PLEASE REPLY TO THIS EMAIL IF YOU'D LIKE TO BE INVOLVED!* There is a bit of a community around the OpenTrons platform, and I'm sure we could come up with some interesting applications. Unfortunately, the robot was too large to fit in the truck, so it had to be substantially disassembled to bring it over. So the first thing we should do it to reassemble it. But before we can do that, we need to *figure out WHERE to put it.* Couple of options: 1) Install it on one of the lab benches. This would take up most of a lab bench, plus some space next to it for the freezer. 2) If we lose the freezer, we should be able to cut down the axes so it fits on about half a lab bench. 3) We could find some place elsewhere in the building to put it - likely in the basement. Welcome to any other suggestions! Here's some pic of the robot in its full, functioning glory: And here's its current sorry state, disassembled and taking up way too much space: ​ ​Patrik -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Counter Culture Labs" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to counterculturelabs+unsubscribe(a)googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to counterculturelabs(a)googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. ---------- From: *Maureen Muldavin* &lt;muldavin.m(a)gmail.com&gt; Date: Mon, Jan 18, 2016 at 10:03 PM To: Patrik D'haeseleer &lt;patrikd(a)gmail.com&gt; Cc: &quot;cclmembers(a)googlegroups.com&quot; &lt;cclmembers(a)googlegroups.com&gt;om>, " counterculturelabs(a)googlegroups.com&quot; &lt;counterculturelabs(a)googlegroups.com&gt;om>, &quot;cultlabsboard(a)googlegroups.com&quot; &lt;cultlabsboard(a)googlegroups.com&gt; I'm excited about the robot! I also have robot parts in my car still. It was raining too hard yesterday to carry them inside. On Mon, Jan 18, 2016 at 9:34 PM, Patrik D'haeseleer &lt;patrikd(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: ---------- From: *Kathy Buehmann* &lt;kathy.buehmann(a)gmail.com&gt; Date: Mon, Jan 18, 2016 at 10:30 PM To: Maureen Muldavin &lt;muldavin.m(a)gmail.com&gt; Cc: counterculturelabs(a)googlegroups.com, cclmembers(a)googlegroups.com, " cultlabsboard(a)googlegroups.com&quot; &lt;cultlabsboard(a)googlegroups.com&gt;om>, Patrik D'haeseleer &lt;patrikd(a)gmail.com&gt; I'm interested in helping reassemble the robot and figuring out how to operate/care for it. I'll put a sign up on it tmr for those who don't read their email :-P I'd love to have a group of 4-5 people who are educated on and interested in caring for the robot, and whose names are written boldly on it somewhere for when newbies are ready to give it a try. Real vegan cheese, open insulin, alex n, mary/maureen, and other projects out there: do you have any foreseeable need for a high thruput liquid handler in the near-ish future? Kathy ---------- From: *Maureen Muldavin* &lt;muldavin.m(a)gmail.com&gt; Date: Mon, Jan 18, 2016 at 10:39 PM To: Kathy Buehmann &lt;kathy.buehmann(a)gmail.com&gt; Cc: cclabs &lt;counterculturelabs(a)googlegroups.com&gt;om>, Counter Culture Labs Members &lt;cclmembers(a)googlegroups.com&gt;om>, &quot;cultlabsboard(a)googlegroups.com&quot; < cultlabsboard(a)googlegroups.com&gt;gt;, Patrik D'haeseleer &lt;patrikd(a)gmail.com&gt; I want to plan to have classes in robot operation by May. I think that open insulin might have some use for the robot at some point, but not sure when. I'm really interested in learning how to use a liquid handler robot. I strongly feel that we should keep the robot. I have a feeling that once Noel's protein software group gets going, we might start to attract more programmers and engineers into the lab. The robot can be a bridge between the fields of engineering and biology. ---------- From: *Mary Ward* &lt;maryhbw(a)gmail.com&gt; Date: Tue, Jan 19, 2016 at 6:25 AM To: Kathy Buehmann &lt;kathy.buehmann(a)gmail.com&gt; Cc: Maureen Muldavin &lt;muldavin.m(a)gmail.com&gt;om>, counterculturelabs(a)googlegroups.com, cclmembers(a)googlegroups.com, " cultlabsboard(a)googlegroups.com&quot; &lt;cultlabsboard(a)googlegroups.com&gt;om>, Patrik D'haeseleer &lt;patrikd(a)gmail.com&gt; Hi All, Marc said he was interested in using the robot for assembly of a parts similar to Biobrick. He said he would be attending next weeks delegate meeting to request a spot for the robot in the basement because this sucker is big. -Mary Sent from my iPhone On Jan 18, 2016, at 10:30 PM, Kathy Buehmann &lt;kathy.buehmann(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: I'm interested in helping reassemble the robot and figuring out how to operate/care for it. I'll put a sign up on it tmr for those who don't read their email :-P I'd love to have a group of 4-5 people who are educated on and interested in caring for the robot, and whose names are written boldly on it somewhere for when newbies are ready to give it a try. Real vegan cheese, open insulin, alex n, mary/maureen, and other projects out there: do you have any foreseeable need for a high thruput liquid handler in the near-ish future? Kathy On Jan 18, 2016 10:04 PM, "Maureen Muldavin" &lt;muldavin.m(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CCult Lab's Board" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to CultLabsBoard+unsubscribe(a)googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. ---------- From: *Noel Carrascal* &lt;noelcarrascal(a)gmail.com&gt; Date: Tue, Jan 19, 2016 at 11:12 AM To: Maureen Muldavin &lt;muldavin.m(a)gmail.com&gt; Cc: Kathy Buehmann &lt;kathy.buehmann(a)gmail.com&gt;om>, cclabs < counterculturelabs(a)googlegroups.com&gt;gt;, Counter Culture Labs Members < cclmembers(a)googlegroups.com&gt;gt;, &quot;cultlabsboard(a)googlegroups.com&quot; < cultlabsboard(a)googlegroups.com&gt;gt;, Patrik D'haeseleer &lt;patrikd(a)gmail.com&gt; Now that we have a Robot, and a protein software group on the making, and that my name was mention in a previous email, I would like to emphasize the importance of volunteers to turn this equipment and project into something useful to the lab. I have realized that it takes a lot of work setting up, deploying, testing and maintaining the software tools for the whole lab to benefit. I worked with three new tenure-track faculty during my PhD, and it took months of installing, scripting and debugging before the software tools could be put to work on projects, and longer to turn them into publications. Outside academia, it should take less time and work. At CCL and Biocurious, I have tried to help people with the CRISPR-CAS9 and Insulin, only to find out that I cannot do this by myself, even with the know-how. CRISPR-Cas9 is too large a protein to do much on a personal computer, and I do not have the required software to build a linker for the insulin project. So, I would like to take this opportunity to encourage volunteers who want to work on the robot or computational protein design to join me for a presentation on January 29th. The meeting is on Protein Structure, visualization, modeling and design <http://www.meetup.com/Counter-Culture-Labs/events/228129282/> and it is on meetup.com. That will be the starting point for organizing volunteer efforts for the software side of the Counter Culture Labs. People of all levels of skill are welcome. I will provide papers, book references and guidance for those who are not experts and want to learn the fundamentals of the biophysics of protein dynamics and design. Noel ---------- From: *Maureen Muldavin* &lt;muldavin.m(a)gmail.com&gt; Date: Tue, Jan 19, 2016 at 12:37 PM To: Noel Carrascal &lt;noelcarrascal(a)gmail.com&gt; Cc: Kathy Buehmann &lt;kathy.buehmann(a)gmail.com&gt;om>, cclabs < counterculturelabs(a)googlegroups.com&gt;gt;, Counter Culture Labs Members < cclmembers(a)googlegroups.com&gt;gt;, &quot;cultlabsboard(a)googlegroups.com&quot; < cultlabsboard(a)googlegroups.com&gt;gt;, Patrik D'haeseleer &lt;patrikd(a)gmail.com&gt; I've announced the meetup and posted it to several biohacker Facebook groups. I also submitted it to the funcheap website. I'll post it on CCL's Facebook and start marketing the class over twitter later tonight. I was planning to do a 2-week class marketing push anyways. Maureen ---------- From: *Patrik D'haeseleer* &lt;patrikd(a)gmail.com&gt; Date: Tue, Jan 19, 2016 at 1:51 PM To: Maureen Muldavin &lt;muldavin.m(a)gmail.com&gt; Cc: Kathy Buehmann &lt;kathy.buehmann(a)gmail.com&gt;om>, Noel Carrascal < noelcarrascal(a)gmail.com&gt;gt;, &quot;cultlabsboard(a)googlegroups.com&quot; < cultlabsboard(a)googlegroups.com&gt;gt;, cclabs &lt;counterculturelabs(a)googlegroups.com&gt;om>, Counter Culture Labs Members &lt;cclmembers(a)googlegroups.com&gt; Excellent - don't forget about the Bay Area Science calendar as well! We could use some help making the class listing on Meetup a bit more attractive. I pasted in some images, but the meetup editor is rather minimalistic (no image resizing - really? ) I believe you can paste in from Word or a web page though, and it'll preserve some of the formatting that you cannot edit directly in Meetup (sigh)... Patrik too much space: Groups "CCult Lab's Board" group. send an email to CultLabsBoard+unsubscribe(a)googlegroups.com. Groups "CCult Lab's Board" group. send an email to CultLabsBoard+unsubscribe(a)googlegroups.com. Groups "Counter Culture Labs" group. an email to counterculturelabs+unsubscribe(a)googlegroups.com. .