About

MIT BioMakers is an open community of students that are designing and leading hands-on bioengineering projects. In our biomakerspace — the Huang-Hobbs BioMaker Space — students move their ideas into the iterative design-build-test-learn cycle, developing engineered biological systems to both explore the fundamentals of biology and tackle some of society's most difficult technical challenges. Through workshops, community projects, reading groups, and more, students develop the skills to build with biology, while also considering humanity's responsibility to do so ethically and sustainably.

Join our mailing list (biomakers-prospectives [at] mit.edu) to hear about our upcoming events, and reach out to our exec team (biomakers-exec [at] mit.edu) with any questions!

If you're interested in joining the MIT BioMakers student group, come to our meetings that take place every Monday and Friday at 5:30 pm in room 26-033!

The Huang-Hobbs BioMaker Space

The Huang-Hobbs BioMaker Space is a BL2 biological lab located in the basement of Building 26, room 26-035. It includes the essential equipment for most biological and chemical engineering projects. Adjacent to the lab is a lounge area in 26-033 where students can work and hang out.

Community initiatives

Community initiatives are student-led groups that gather together students with a shared interest. Generally, community initiatives center around a goal, e.g. developing better cancer therapies, or charting the path for sustainable manufacturing. Community initiatives usually meet at least once at week outside of the Monday and Friday general BioMakers meetings.

Want to build a community around a certain topic? Have a project idea and want to find other students to work on it with you? If so, come share your ideas with us during our Monday or Friday meetings!

Here's a list of our current community initiatives:

Cancer

Cancer remains one of the most formidable diseases of our time. Treatments, no matter how novel, are eventually met with recurrence, resistance, and eventually metastasis. The cancer initiative meets weekly to learn about the biology of cancer, discuss novel treatments from both a molecular biology and clinical perspective, and work on projects integrating experiments with computation to answer some of the most pertinent questions in cancer research.

Meeting times for Fall 2023 will be decided after the first general BioMakers meeting (September 11, 2023), so check back shortly!

Independent projects

Project applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Note that it can take up to a month to get MIT EHS approval, so start your application early! We will work with you to move your idea into a full-fledged proposal, so don't be afraid to submit a partially-completed application. If you have any questions, reach out to us at biomakerspace [at] mit.edu or directly to our space director, Dr. Justin Buck (jbuck [at] mit.edu).

The application can be found at https://tinyurl.com/hhbms-app.

Upcoming events

View our Fall 2023 Offerings Catalog, including workshops, info sessions, and events! This catalog (along with the calendar) will be updated throughout the semester, so check back frequently for additional offerings!