Biology subjects

Aidelberg, G.

Publications and source records attributed to Aidelberg, G..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

qByte: Open-source isothermal fluorimeter for democratizing analysis of nucleic acids, proteins and cells

Access to affordable and reliable scientific instrumentation remains a significant barrier to the democratization of healthcare and scientific research. In the field of biotechnology, in particular, the complexity, cost, and infrastructure requirements of many instruments continue to limit their accessibility, especially in resource-limited environments. Despite the recent increase in the development of open-source tools, driven by advances in digital fabrication and electronic prototyping, few of these projects have reached large-scale implementation or validation in real-world settings. Here, we present qByte, an open-source, 8-tube isothermal fluorimeter designed to overcome these barriers by offering a cost-effective ($60) yet production-ready solution. qByte leverages standard digital manufacturing and Printed Circuit Board (PCB) assembly techniques and is designed to be portable, making it ideal for both laboratory and field use. The device has been benchmarked against commercial real-time thermocyclers and spectrophotometers, showing comparable results across four key applications: nucleic acid amplification and detection, analysis of protein activity and stability, genetic construct characterization, and bacterial viability tests. Further testing including the on-site diagnosis of human parasites in Kumasi, Ghana, and field work in Patagonia, Chile, validated qBytes reliability in real-world conditions. Taken together, our results proved qByte as flexible and reliable equipment for a variety of biological tests and applications, while its affordability and open-source design simplify further development and allow adaptation to the needs of future users.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2024

Open Educational Resources for distributed hands-on teaching in molecular biology

The urgent need to develop a more equitable bioeconomy has positioned biotechnology capacity building at the forefront of international priorities. However, in many educational institutions, particularly in low-and middle-income countries, this remains a major challenge due to limited access to reagents, equipment, and technical documentation. In this work, we describe Open Educational Resources (OER) composed of locally produced biological reagents, open source hardware and free software to teach fundamental techniques in biotechnology such as LAMP DNA amplification, RT-PCR RNA detection, enzyme kinetics and fluorescence imaging. The use of locally produced reagents and devices reduces costs by up to one order of magnitude. During the pandemic lockdowns, these tools were distributed nationwide to students homes as a lab-in-a-box for remote teaching of molecular biology. To test their performance, a total of 93 undergraduate students tested these resources during a biochemistry practical course. 27 out of 31 groups ([~]87%) successfully achieved the objectives of the PCR activity, while 28 out of 31 groups ([~]90%) correctly identified the target using LAMP reactions. To assess the potential application in secondary school, we organized three workshops for high school teachers from different institutions across Chile and performed an anonymous questionnaire, obtaining a strong agreement on how these OER broaden teachers perspectives on the techniques and facilitate the teaching of molecular biology topics. This effort was made possible through a close collaboration with open source technology advocates and members of DIYbio communities, whose work is paving the way for low-cost training in biology. All the protocols and design files are available under open source licenses.

molecular biology↗