Open-Source Fluidics IAP 2015

David Sun Kong, Ph.D., Technical Staff - Bioengineering Systems & Technologies MIT Lincoln Laboratory

MIT IAP 2015 Graduate Course 20.S591

“Open-Source Fluidics for Synthetic Biology: Prototyping Microbial Communities”

The human gut is an astonishing ecosystem of trillions of micro-organisms that live in a remarkable harmony with us, the human host. In this intensive graduate course, students developed 3D design and fabrication skills and constructed fluidic "artificial guts." Students utilized these structures to culture a variety of gut-based micro-organisms, both in mono- and co-cultures, to prototype and construct from scratch their own microbial communities.

Class 1 Introduction
 

Course overview, Talks "Synthetic Biology," Dr. Peter Carr (MIT Lincoln Laboratory); "Microfluidics," Dr. Todd Thorsen (MIT Lincoln Laboratory)
Class 2 3D Design
 

3D design workshop by Brian Chan, Talk "3D Printed Hardware for DNA Assembly," Will Patrick (MIT Media Lab)
Class 3 Fluidics & Fabrication
 

High-throughput microfluidics and sequencing the "dark matter" of microbes. 3D stereolithography printing workshop by Formlabs. Talk "Microfluidics for Microbial Genomics," Professor Paul Blainey (MIT Broad Institute)
Class 4 Engineering the Human Microbiota
 

Process first prints, biology lab (68-074) safety training. Talk "Making the Microbiota - how microbes colonize the gut," Sean Kearney (MIT Human Microbiome Center) Talk "Engineering the human microbiome: Designing personal analytics technology," Mariana Matus and Yaniv Turgeman (MIT Human Microbiome Center).
Class 5 Fecal Matter Transplants
 

Process prints, start microbial cell culture, Talk "Open Biome," Mark Smith (President & Co-Founder, www.openbiome.org)
Class 6 Open-Source Devices
 

Talk: "Little Devices," Jose Gomez-Marquez (Principal, Little Devices)
Class 7 Programmable 3D Fluidics
 

Talk: "Multi-material 3D Valves," Steven Keating & Will Patrick (MIT Media Lab)
Class 8 Lab Work
Class 9 Final Presentations
   

Dr. David Sun Kong (Group 48, MITLL) with students and mentors at MITLL Beaver Works  (IAP 2015)