BioLab is a design space for vibrant futures. We question the status quo of biotechnological situations of tension and provide new stimuli from the perspectives of design and art. Using design approaches, we research hidden life. We view living manufacturing methods, renewable materials, adaptive and resilient products and systems as future-orientated fields that must be examined and explored.

Through professional instruction, in BioLab students gain access to biotechnological methods and learn to design diverse futures with living (micro)organisms and their products. A culture of openness and transparency makes it possible to objectively discuss and explore the borders between nature, culture, and technology. Ethical questions on the biotechnological future are one focal area of discourse and public dialogue.

Symbiotic Subjects – Beneficiary Relations and Interactions

The BioLab's overarching research theme "Symbiotic Subjects – Beneficiary Relations and Interactions" focuses on the changing human-nature relationship. Can we learn from symbiotic systems? Can we understand ourselves as one? We explore the potential of human interaction with living matter for possible futures. What are the possibilities of microbial cooperation through biotechnological processes? How will we use today's renewable resources more responsibly – viewing them as symbiotic partners rather than resources? These and other questions are raised through the development of experimental material, artefacts, and scenarios. We experiment with embedding microorganisms in different materials and give an insight into different material futures.

Teilprojekt Living Layers

Das BioLab widmet sich im Projekt „Living Layers“ der Einbettung von lebenden Mikroorganismen in Materialien, Membranen und textile Flächen. Anhand der experimentellen Verknüpfung von textilen Technologien mit biotechnologischen Prozessen untersucht das Projekt die Potenziale, die aus den symbiotischen (Schicht-)Systemen entstehen. Dabei kombinieren wir konventionelle Formgebungsmethoden, wie den 3D-Druck, Dipmoulding oder sogar Electro-Spinning mit einer explorativen Arbeitsweise. So ergibt sich die Möglichkeit, Oberflächen und Strukturen mit völlig neuen Eigenschaften zu gestalten. Außerdem wird dabei ausgelotet, welcher Handlungsspielraum dem Lebendigen zukommt, inwiefern es bei der Gestaltung des Materials selbst mitwirkt oder in Interaktion mit der Umwelt tritt.

Sub-project Bio.Lumina

The project examines the fundamental biochemical and structural properties that are required to preserve and manage microbial activity in new materials. The subject of study is bioluminescent bacteria, which have a symbiotic relationship with numerous marine organisms. Our research focuses on Euprymna scolopes, the Hawaiian bobtail squid. The squid breeds the bioluminescent bacteria Aliivibrio fischeri in its light organ to hide its own shadow at night. The process involves systematic selection and cultivation, as well as the control of quorum-sensing mechanisms within the A. fischeri population. Our aim is to transfer our findings to various contexts and materials in order to embed living microorganisms – above and beyond luminescent bacteria – in products. We aspire to generate active microbial materials that can be processed with manufacturing techniques such as 3D printing and electrospinning.

BioLab offers all the conditions that ensure low-threshold access to bioscience work methods at BURG. They include appropriate equipment and professional instruction. On the one hand, the lab possesses state-of-the-art bioscience devices. On the other hand, it provides all the necessary organisms and chemical substances required for use in the common bioscience methods.

Students can experiment with microorganisms such as fungi, bacteria, algae and their products, which include fibres, bioplastic, cellulose, colourants, and more. They can also explore properties such as bioluminescence. We have the opportunity to use a range of chemicals to split biological materials open and extract substances. In future, we will also make equipment available for isolating DNA and the associated proteins.

Devices & consumables

• Stereo microscope
• Universal centrifuge
• Incubation shaker
• Sterile workbench
• Laboratory fume hood
• Autoclave
• Pressure cooker
• Upright incubator
• 3D Printer
• Electrospinning
• Precision scales
• Stirrer
• Pipettes
• Laboratory refrigerator/freezer to -20 °C
• Hazardous substances cabinet for acids, alkaline solutions, and organic solvents
• Laboratory glassware (flasks, test tubes, beakers, Schott bottles, graduated cylinders, etc.)
• Sterile disposable items (syringes, sterile filters, pipette tips, scalpels, centrifuge tubes, etc.)

Organisms (TBC)

• Aliivibrio fischeri (bacterium) – Bioluminescent bacterium
• Chlorella vulgaris (green alga) – Easily cultivated microalgae, scientific model organism, practices photosynthesis, high protein content
• Cupriavidus necator (bacterium) – Synthesises PHB – polyhydroxybutyrate (a polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA))
• Gluconacetobacter xylinus (bacterium) – Produces cellulose and secretes it into culture medium
• Laetiporus sulphureus DH158 (bracket fungus) – Sulphur yellow to orange-coloured pigments, rots its host tree, "chicken of the woods"
• Laetiporus cincinnatus DH165 (bracket fungus) – Like Laetiporus sulphureus, prefers oak trees
• Lyngbya sp. (filamentous cyanobacterium) – “Blue-green alga”, bacterium that practices photosynthesis, key component of marine food chain, synthesizes scytonemin (UV-absorbing pigment)
• Nostoc commune (cyanobacterium) – Another “blue-green alga”, practices photosynthesis and can bind nitrogen, drought-resistant
• Nostoc sp. PCC 7120 (filamentous cyanobacterium ) – Like Nostoc commune
• Pseudoalteromonas luteoviolacea (bacterium) – Violet pigment (violacein)
• Pseudoalteromonas rubra (bacterium) – Red pigment (prodigiosin)

Media

• Culture media for bacteria, fungi, algae (potato-dextrose-agar (PDA), lysogeny broth (LB), malt extract-agar, etc.)
• Selected buffers and typical reagents for cultivation
• The available chemicals are recorded in the BioLab database and are constantly expanded

BioLab is open to students and associates in all faculties. They must observe the opening hours or office hours and register in advance with the associates in the lab.