Yan Kay: Okay, great welcome everyone to Reclone's Community Meeting, the February edition. And today we have joining us is Kingstone Nihaka, who is doing his PhD at the Durban University of Technology in South Africa. There his focus area was on plasmid construction and enzyme manufacturing. and recently he co-founded Plasmigene. where the services that include manufacturing of molecular reagents and enzymes. So this very much chimes in with what we're interested in here at Reclone. So I'll pa
ss you over to Kingstone. So you can talk to us about Plasmigene's journey at pioneering progress in biotech manufacturing and shaping the future of molecular biology research in Southern Africa and beyond. So please give a warm welcome to Kingstone. Kingstone: Okay, thank you, Yan Kay, for the kind introductions. Let me share my slides. Just a moment. Can you please confirm if you can see the slides from your end? Yep, looks all good. Oh, perfect! Thank you. And you can clearly hear me, guys. o
kay, perfect. So The title of my talk today is Plasmigene's Journey Pioneering progress in biotech manufacturing and shaping the future of molecular biology research in Southern Africa and beyond. So to begin with, maybe I will just introduce myself briefly. Okay. So my name is Kingstone Nihaka. and I'm a co-founder of Plasmigene. Plasmigene is a biotech startup, and we focus on manufacturing. Our tech products are for molecular biology research as well as our diagnostics. I'm currently pursuing
my PhD in biology and the Durban University of Technology (DUT) are down South in South Africa. So my academic background is as follows, I did my Honours degree in in Biotechnology at Foreign State University of Engineering Technologies. That was in Russia. Then I went on to do my Master's degree in Biotechnology at the University of Zimbabwe. So originally I'm from Zimbabwe. So that's my home country. And that's where I did my Master's degree in Biotechnology. and after doing my Master's degre
e, I I came down to Durban University of Technology. That's where I am currently based and and where I'm doing my PhD. So briefly. That's that's the background, my academic background. So let's talk about. where are we located? So Plasmigene is located in South Africa. It is precisely the debut in use of technology. So South Africa is down South. If you can look at the name of Africa. There you can see, South Africa is south of Africa. and our Plasmigene is located at Steve Biko campus in the De
partment of Biotechnology and Food Science. And this is where, the idea to start Plasmigene started in the corridors of of our but of our of our laboratories. So we are frustrated. By the time it takes. To procure reagents, especially molecular reagents that we need to use. For our stage purposes. So the programming the app processes, checks. So much time. you know so much that it affects our research in a negative way. and I was particularly frustrated. When I wanted to order some plasmids it t
ook forever for those plasmids to to be delivered. and that's when I thought no. why can't we? We have this plasmid readily available somewhere in Africa. Because if you look here in South Africa mit Ctl. And in Africa, if we, if I may say so, we actually import most of our reactions from the global north Mit, Ctl, and right? So there is a problem now of delays in programming and software Mit, Ctl, and and also South Africa is actually fortunate because it's much more developed compared to other
countries in the global sub. 250. And whilst we have the money. the problem not becomes that of procurement. You know those hassles and had us. But when I was doing my masters in in Zimbabwe the problem was actually that of funding demand was not there. So he had to be very. You have to be someone who is very improvising to actually carry out a molecular biology research. So these are the problems that I've seen during my academic gen that here in the global South, we have a problem of of acqui
ring a molecular reagents for us to do basic molecular research so frustrated. By by this I thought of starting a company. So I initially, I just wanted a company that would store plasmids and distributed plasmids to other researchers would want them. So I called that company PlasmidHub. So that's when the journey started So at DUT, there is what you call Innobiz. So it's a center for entrepreneurship and innovation. And and they do support students who would want to venture into and entrepreneu
rship. So I went with my idea PlasmidHub And I called it a biological bank that time, and I wanted it to be incubated and supported by Innobiz. And with the time I realized that the problems are not that of plasmids only, but other molecular reagents. I think at our university we import almost maybe close to 90 or more than 90% of the reagents that we need. To for us to do our our liberal sort of work. So this was a problem that that I saw. So with other colleagues who came aboard. We decided, t
o rename the company from PlasmidHub. To Plasmigene. So with Plasmigene now mit ctl, and it now has 2 aspects that one of storing plasmids and distributing plasmids, 150 the same way that companies such as at Gene, you know. They they also do that that kind of work. But it's very, actually difficult for us in Africa to actually get those plasmids from from from from from from other repositories that are in the world. So I thought maybe if you could have a section whereby we have a repository, th
at's number one, number 2. We also have a section we would do manufacturing of enzymes in the other molecular reagents. So in 20 to 23 we registered our company with companies, Intellectual Property Commission in South Africa, and the we are trading under the name Plasmigene and like any other company in at the Startup Company. Erez agmoni you face challenges of money. You need money to to do your daily business and software. So we started looking for funding. basically would just go and then an
d teach our ideas and and looking for funds. and in the same year we pitched our idea in Johannesburg, South Africa. and we got second price money, you know. to to support our business, and that was a really a good boost for our company, because mit Ctl, and we merely using our own money, you know, to fund the business. So this finding that we got from cut to edge propeller was, was, was actually good in in financing our our services. and also in the same year 2023, we we got some plasmids are f
rom the sava database that is, in Spain. So they actually also promote open science. So we got this plasm for free. And the good thing about this Plasmids is that they operate in a modular fashion. So when you have erez agmoni a couple or a number of plasmids. You can actually create even more plasmids, you know, by just interchanging the parts. So we go to more than 19 plasmids that we have now in our repository. We are working on them. We haven't started distributing as yet, but I think that's
that's a that's a huge step that that we we took then, with regards to the manufacturing side. Now. I think, at the turning point was when we we joined the beneficiary of bio network. So this is a network of scientists on the businesses. you know, scientists to who are working to manufacture religions locally. So this is actually has been a good network for us because we are. We had together with people with the same mind, with the same goal, same M. People who are not really in competition. Bu
t people want to advance sides. So there is been a lot of help in within this group beneficial bio. And there's a lot of collaborations that are happening. And and we hope this 100. These collaborations will actually. you know, it is a as a jump start for us, you know, to start manually and as much as we are. We've gained traction with the plus media repository. I think the manufacturing aspect now is is also leging and beneficial. Bio now is, comes in in that aspect. and also, I'm glad to say.
erez agmoni. We are going to be receiving open DNA collections. So there's open exams. and as well as molecular diagnostic trickies from this organization, from this community, rich loan particular from the open bioeconomy lab in Cambridge. So this is a huge step for us. Because. this reason is with what we really want to do, especially here in global South. we need to advance and promote open science. So in as much as we are going to be manufacturing our own enzymes and so forth. we also felt t
hat it's also our mandate to promote open science. So gonna have a section whereby we're also going to redistribute this open gene collections for free to sign this to magnetium. So we're going to operate is is a hub kinda whereby we just build this open DNA collections are 2 other scientists or researchers in Southern Africa and in Africa is a hole. So going forward this year. I'm glad to so announce that. Yeah. Mit ctl, and I think we are going to receive this open dignity collections by end o
f February, according to the communication that had with the recron community and entertainment, open biolum economy in open economy by lab in Cambridge. So by end of February, going to receive this open dinner collections erez agmoni, and we are going to be touching our research and development processes and the debates of technology are particularly in the laboratory. So that's where this research and development will take place. And from here we can now scale up our processes. Now. erez agmon
i, from research, then to manufacturing to industry, if we see any promising, you know products that you might have are researched on. so I will also reiterate on the products at services that we offer. As I've mentioned earlier on. And number One, we have a plasma repository. So we are still developing this repository mit Ctl, and so our vision is to service the hub for plasma vectors. You know, I've seen that, especially here in Africa, we have a challenge is we're buying you. People can work
with plasmids but 3, 4, 5 years down the line. Those plasmids are lost erez agmoni, you know, a lot of work can be published actually. But if you try to look for the plans that we created, you won't find them because they'll be lost. So I think we need to to have a a platform where we can conserve this genetic resources. A lot of money is put in research and so forth, so we wouldn't want people to, wouldn't want to to lose so much money. So it's to speak, because if a lot of money is invested in
research, then we need to see the goods and services that are produced from those kinds of research. So once you conserve the biological resources, and that's the aspect of of the plasma repository that we are looking into. Then number 2 with the openness and collection reagents and diagnostics. these are the the open dinner collections that I spoke about. and we also so creates a hub erez agmoni for that, so that we recurred them. We store them, and we distribute them to to others, such as to
migrate them 250 then going forward erez Agmoni would now look into the manufacturing of molecular agents. Right now we are working on developing a hundred plasmid are DNA selection kit as well as genomic engineer selection kit. So we are right. Now we we are gaining traction. But very soon, I think in the next month or so we have a prototype of these. nucleic acids are isolation kids. So that's that's that's that with molecular agents. But we need to. We intend to diversify our portfolio when i
t comes to molecular agents. because we have seen that our molecular molecular wig. very few people or very few institutions, especially in Africa. I do believe it just because the reactions are expensive. So people would rather do research that is not costly. Right? So with that, people tend not to do molecular biology work more because of the expenses that are involved. So we'd want to to actually bridge that gap that is there. So like more people do, molecular and so forth. and with molecular
and diagnostic enzymes, as I've mentioned earlier would also want you to manufacture them at a larger scale. So if we, if we have any promising instance, and so forth. would actually upscale them and and manufacture them. Okay, so let me introduce you. I team that is behind a plasmogen. So one of the co-founders is She is a master student at the same university I made that is deep in University of technology. She also holds an honors degree in in biotechnology. She's been very instrumental, esp
ecially when it comes to development of protocols that we are trying to develop. And then the reaction that you're developing. She's I can say she's a food soldier in the lab, you know, breaking and so forth, and she's also the face of the company with with the bank and so forth. So right now we are still a startup at the very beginning. We're starting. So we are doing. Each person is doing multiple, you know. but until that time when we can actually begin even to employ more people and so forth
. As we grow. then we have Mr. Nigel Fuchai. He has been instrumental in in the development of the business. So he's our business development manager, and he also his experience with waking and a pharmaceutical bio manufacturing. So he's been really helpful. you know, in terms of expanding the the business and pass myself there. I think I've introduced myself. and one of the things that I do is talking about the company like what I'm doing right now. Then we have a professor. he is an accomplish
ed researcher in biotechnology, and he provides the vision and guidance for the company. and also the way that we are doing. We're actually doing the work in his lab. So he has been really. You know. I hope in that regard. even with When it comes to the research and development that we plan to do this year he'll be the one who's overseeing all those projects. So just a recap of our partners is plasma gene. I think all of these that are here. I have mentioned them. When I was talking about the hi
story of plasma gene, we have duties. They support students, entrepreneurs with the reclone community. Who are also who also support with We've beneficial bio. We've opened bio economy lab. I've told about them. We have a bio catalyst and by materials laboratory. That is the lab of Professor Kudanga. and I think another partner that I have not mentioned is Csr. so this is scientific center for scientific and industrial research in South Africa. So this organization is is really helpful when it c
omes to. you know, validating manufacturing processes. and also in technology transfer. They are very awful, and I had last year that was 23. III attended employment friction course there for one month. so it was organized by Csr. and think his foundation. And for me, that was the first experience, you know, fake experience of having erez agmoni to see the the workflow of manufacturing permanent friction on any industrial scale. So the skills that again, there. in addition to the, you know conne
ction that I've got. we're really hopeful in advancing. The work that we are doing at 8 plus meeting. So let me just take you through some highlights, highlights, and pictures, plus weekend. So this was me. Yes, changing the when I was attending the one month course in Bi manufacturing So that's myself and Miss Butalez. I will co-found that. So here we were pitching our business in the debut universe of technology in Daba. So in their back, it's just a pseudonym, that is Zulu word. That means a
meeting. So it was just a in entrepreneurship meeting. So that was us. Then here the last picture. this is me. When we receive the funding office funding from the age propeller after pitching our our business in John's bag. So now we go on to the contact details. So this is our website. But if you go there right now, there is nothing there but our team is working to put information in place, because we understand that visibility is very important. especially now that we are really growing. Peopl
e need to to know our way. People need to know, what products do we provide? Which services do we have? So we are putting the website in place in the coming weeks or so, I think there will be something on on our website. And then those are the names of the co-founders and the those are the email addresses. So you can reach out to any one of us if you need to, any information about a plus meeting. I think that's my last side. Yeah, thank you very much for listening. Rake, and give a round of appl
ause to Kingston. Thank you for telling us more about plasma, Jean? So any questions? Well, whilst you guys are thinking, I'll start you off on one. So you mentioned about diagnostic enzymes is something that you want to focus on. What particular disease or things like, do you think you're screening for? Well, do you want to provide these enzymes for? Okay? So with that diagnostic instance, I understand. And this collection, we are getting it from you 3 clone community and mit Ctl. And I know Co
vid is passed us right now. But II saw that there sometimes also to test off of it 250, and and so forth. But we are going to really screen to see which ones are there, and what works best for us, especially given our context in Africa. to say which I, which diseases are more prevalent, and then and then which which diagnostic and Sams would be best to start with. Given the context that we are in. So have you reached out to other kind of other different market sectors? Essentially, to say, like,
are you focusing more on academic researchers or particular businesses who who make use of these enzymes. Okay, thank you. Okay. We are focusing actually on both on both. So the first is distributing to researchers who would want to to work with them. That's number one, number 2. They are businesses that would need those of these who would also focus on that Mit Ctl and providing them. So it's it's we believe in in linking research and in industry. So we really want to make this 250 really buil
ding out that network then. And I can see Christian. You have a question. cristian rojas: Thanks. Kingston. Very nice presentation, very inspiring. In aboriginal Brazil we have very similar situation where the reagents are not all not always available. But our main problem, I will say, is the competent sales. because we have to to buy, and many times we we are. We had received in not the best conditions, because we test it and try many times, and we, we. we perceive that many times the results.
Were not working as the 10 to 8 competence that we sell. Do you have the same problem. Okay, thank you very much. we sometimes. Yes, when when you try to make up yourselves, you face some problems. But I think in our lab. We have developed some protocols that we now trust. that works very well. And we don't have problem with making competent sales about electoral, competent, or or chemically competent. And I think I would be happy to to share the protocols that we use. You know, with the communi
ty. It's not really a problem now for us in making competent. So so we don't really need to actually buy competitive cells, we actually make them in our laboratory. But oh, definitely, do share that sorry Christian you were saying. thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Thank you. Yeah, definitely. Do share those protocols of the community. Feel free to put that in the the Forum, and sure or make use of that from there. Adrian, you have a question. Would you like giving me to read it out, or would you like to?
Okay, yeah, I assume. Yes. So Adrian asks, who were your major plasma providers? And do you have a list of target plasmids that you are or will be producing. Okay, thank you very much. So dial, I can say in the moment the safer database right. He's been the major provider of plasmids. And right now I cannot say we have ticket plasma that you want to make, but based on our customer needs. We can actually create plasmid for them, because the safer plasmids now they come in a modular function. And
so you have the origin of replication. You have the cargo, you have your resistance markers that are different. So all these are different. So you can interchange this path to create the plasmids that you want. So this is another aspect that we are looking into to say, when we have this collection of modular plasmids. based on our customer needs, we can actually create, plus that our customer needs based on on what they want to do erez agmoni. So the sava saver that the business has been our ma
jor. You know, contributor for for the Plasmids. So you're saying you're going to also make bespoke bespoke plasmids for customer needs which can be quite intensive. Yeah, it can be quite intensive. Yeah, I do understand. It can be quite intended. But now the the good thing about these is they are modular. So it's just you cut and paste. You cut and paste the first that you want. so they make it easy, not very easy, but it's much better, because it's current taste. He? Yeah. that's true. Receive
r collections are very useful. Joseph, would you like to Ask Kingston your question directly. and okay. if not. So Joseph asks you mentioned developing kits to extract DNA if he heard correctly, and they aim, and are they aim to extract plasmids or genomic DNA or self free. DNA. Okay, thank you. So what we have. what we, what we have with mind right now is to extract plasmids number one, number 2 to extract genomic DNA. So it's plasmic DNA and genomic DNA, we've not really looked into so free DN
A. But it's something that we can look into, you know, as we develop our portfolio and so forth. So kind of follow along with Joseph's question, is this extraction kits something you've made in house, or is it a commercial thing that you're kind of redistribute? Say, yes. so it's something that we are making on our own? You know the the did they? The recipe for for for these kids is not. It's not something that is hidden is out there. But I think we took more hard in the beneficial bio community
. We actually, we in talks with some guys from Brazil, you know. and we actually saw that they are actually offering a better. you know. outside a better alternative in manufacturing these kids. So we are really looking into that to say, What if we do their way so that they can transfer the technology to us. So we are in talks with them so that they can transfer also the technology to us and and and and and and so forth. because we wanted to make this get the traditional way. Nothing really diff
erent, you know, but we're just saying we are producing locally, you see. But now the guys from Brazil they come in with a different dimension. We saw that you know the the protocols. They actually reduce the cost in a way. So we are thinking into if they can come, and you know, transfer the ability that they have to us. I mean, I think a lot of people on this call and within the community themselves, will be quite interested to see the homebrew kits what the what the spread scores and how they
how they can do it. So please do share that with us as well on the community Siva, I believe, is SEVA. By the way, Adrian, I think. But do do, don't quit. Okay, so the it's if you can type pieceva, let me let me type in the so you can type piece over. Yeah, you you you you you see the let me see if it. If I can actually share the link you should guilty. Let me share the link right now, whilst I'm here. Okay, yeah, they teach. So they actually provide. These are for free, you know. Okay, let me c
opy and paste. K. So I've I've shared the link so you can. You can browse through, and you can also make your order down if you need plasmids from them. Yes, but it is. I think we've found CPU customers are super useful in the past. Joseph did have a follow up question, and he asked, do you use enzymes or phase, separation, extraction? Joseph had the following question, sorry before we jumped on December. Sorry, and he asks when doing your DNA extraction kiss. Do you use enzymes to do so? Or is
it a phase separation, extraction? Okay, thank you. So as I've mentioned. So when you are developing this protocol we exam is in mind, and one thing that we had in mind was that when we received the open dine collection. I understand that, we've added is a protein is K. So saying, we're going also to manufacture these enzymes. And what input in the kit. But now this actually increases the cost. You know of these kids erez agmoni. But now the the guys from Brazil actually that their workflow is d
ifferent. They don't need the exams. They use magnetic beads and so forth, so they don't don't need these insert and so forth. So we're actually thinking to say, No, let let us do away with the use of enzymes and software because it just is the cost and the cost. That is the thing that want to deal with. So we can be, you know. So I just want to try to to reduce the cost. It's it's it'll cost them. But yeah, we we we, we, we, we planning to use any sense we're planning to use enzymes. Oh, no, th
at that all sounds great. And, as I said, very useful to the community as a whole. Let me see. Thanks, Joseph. so what kind of advice would you give to folks? Oh, we have 2 more questions. Okay, we'll we'll skip my over. I think I saw moi earlier first. So moi, do you want to go first? Moi Relles: Yeah. Hi, I would like to move away from the technical questions. because I think we will be able to share all those things in in our week loan forum I'd like to ask because, looking at the timeline y
ou you presented earlier. Ii was actually very happy at how fast you were able to put up this company. In a span of 3 3 years at least. Around that time. I would like to ask on the administrative and finance aspect of putting up a company. What was the hardest part like, was it with, let's say, human resources? You've mentioned that you received funding but other aspects of putting up a business what were the hardest parts? Because, like in the Philippines, you have to register a company with th
e Government before you can like start the company. So things like that, I'd like to know? Okay, thank you very much. I think for me, I can say it's good to have a good team. a team with people who can complement each other. So I think the 4 of us. We are a perfect match. We complement each other with regards to skills and so forth. you know, and also is very also important. You know the gender balance, you know. You know you. You find that. Okay with these things. You know, we have a lady. She
can do this, so I think we have we are talking with each other, and and and we are really into it. And we take it, is is something that is our own, and and and and we work for that, and for now, for these years, we know that there's no salary for anyone we are just waiting for free, you know you're just donating our time so that the business grows, you know. So when it comes with registering the company we did not face any match. So when you register the company we're using erez agmoni our own m
onies like when you started in everything, or we actually received the funding after the company been registered, and so forth, you know. But I think you know, when we're just passionate about the idea, we are passionate about the what this company would do so for us. We just focused on that, not, you know, focusing on the problems and challenges, and that so everything was just coming into place and and I'm really grateful with the traction that we have taken, and and speaking at this forum and
and the things that are happening right now I feel like, you know. Thank you definitely. Having a good diversity in the well balanced team is is absolutely necessary for these kind of things. And at least I hear the setting up of a company this first couple of years. I just rough. No salary just sounds like standard. From what I've heard from startups, at least until finally comes in. Shall we move on to Jenny? You had a question. I was just wondering so what partly kind of what can we do to su
pport you as a reclaim community is one of my questions. Second one is like. Jenny Molloy: obviously you've you've outlined kind of enzyme manufacturing kit manufacturing and DNA assembly as different kind of product streams that you can have like. Do you feel like? So so in in beneficial bio, we've done some explorations in different countries as to kind of how to address this challenge of going from no company to like a profit hopefully sustainable company. And there's a balance between like m
aking it all yourself, which you need quite a lot of time and a quite high investment versus like more a distribution model or kind of building up a market base through importing and selling stuff. We particularly like everywhere we go. People ask us, can you get primers here quicker, for example. So yeah, I just wondered, how is this? Follow on from weighs question, really about the startup. So maybe we'll do it that way round. If you answer the startup question first, and then kind of if there
's anything we can help with. Yeah, like, how are you thinking about the trajectory of the company, and it sounds like what you have right now is a kind of like sort of dig down. Let's just get through. Get manufacturing, selling. Our own products. Have you considered other routes, and decided not to go that way? I don't think there's a right answer, but I'm intrigued in different countries is kind of different pros and cons to each approach. So yeah, if you, if you're willing to share interest
in Alia. The plasmid repository. Hub. I think it's it's very important for us. It's necessary erez agmoni. So we need to have that aspect as well whereby we store cated plasmid and distribute them. That's number one. And when it comes to manufacturing, we do not manufacture everything. In one time. I think it's something that we would really think to say, okay. what do we have now? What? What are the things that I needed the most? You know, if it is about enzymes which are enzymes would be much
better to to manufacture, you know, to pursue. And if it's diagnostic kids, which ones should we should we develop in terms of of upscaling and manufacturing? But at the same time, with this collection we can distribute, you know, to to those who want to work with that. But for us as a company now we have to choose to say, let's let's develop. Let's go this way and so far. then, with your first question, how do we help? I think I would like to say, I'm actually grateful because you've been reall
y helpful from the beneficial bio network as well as the reclon the open bio economy. We've been really helpful, and we are excited that we are receiving at the dinner collections in the coming week or 2. So for now you're helping us in the way that you would want. You to help us. So I think, for now, yeah, we are. We are good, we are satisfied. And I think. Mit, Ctl, and yeah, we'll continue networking and helping each other, especially when it comes to the development of the protocols. 100 and
the manufacturing, sharing information and so forth. I think that's the help that we really need. The most. Yeah. thank you. Any more questions was that, Jenny, do you have a follow up. Or is that just? Yeah, just a quick follow up. Cause. One of the things you mentioned that was about protocols. And I think I think that's key both for the recon community. But I think also for this kind of so for the for people who are not familiar beneficial by Kingston mentioned a couple of times. But this is
this is a It's primary function right now, in terms of what Kingston does is we? We try and we have a Whatsapp group where there's primarily people that are kind of trying to do what Kingston's trying to do who can talk to each other. And we share funding opportunities and other things. So it's more focused on the reclone community is is a lot of people who are in research labs doing research. But a lot of the challenges that Kingston has alluded to in terms like practically setting up a compan
y and starting to manufacture stuff are very different to research challenges, and so trying to create a community where people can share that because one of the advantages that we have with the distributive manufacturing is that Kingston is not competing with Robson in Brazil, and is not competing with Akbar in Indonesia. So we can really kind of work together and sort of de-risk each other's businesses by sharing kind of protocols and information, but without actually kind of harming. because
most people are targeting a regional market. So I think that's quite a nice aspect to this collaboration, and I think one of the things that will be really nice that we could perhaps do is is to have some more dedicated time to really get those protocols online for people. And maybe we've talked a little bit to protocols. I/O, about maybe having a kind of protocol at some point where we sort of help each other get the protocols online and checked and proofread and edited. And that sort of comes
up repeatedly. I think that everybody kind of wants the protocols, but the effort of actually putting them in writing is quite Hi, and so it sounds like you've got amazing transformation protocols. Robson's got kind of kit production protocols. We've got other people kind of volunteering their protocols. So I guess it's not maybe something to discuss right now, but just to kind of just flagging that having some community effort around that would, I think, be really nice in the near, in the not s
o far distant future. And just to do a kind of a shame spoke, and then I segway thank you, Jenny. We did not plan this office. But what we what we're planning to do so last month. Sorry I'm sharing my screen. And hopefully, you guys can see this now. So last month, at the last community meeting, we talked about the different types of reconcil community projects that we can set up and have have running in the background that folks can focus on. So we talked about the open DNA collections which yo
u can see here. So we have a fair view. so the plan is we want to set up these open working sessions together, where folks can come together from the community to work on a specific topic. And the first session that we want to set up is focused on documentation cause. If you recall correctly. If you recall correctly, I need to go back. We have a lot of different protocols sequences. We've got various other bits and pieces all over the place, but we wanted to put it together in one kind of one sp
ace. So people will go to. This is the location that we go to, and we can click through here to find various protocols. So this is why we want to set up this open DNA collections working group. and we are planning to have a first session in 2 weeks time on Wednesday to sixth. between 2 to 40'clock Htc. And it'll be quite informal. So feel free to drop in, drop out as you have time. But the main focus of this first to our sprint to help with improving documentation, or we circulate links for each
of the the collections that we have. So you can see in the bottom, right? I have currently a very empty table with of many columns of the different collections we have. And the plan for this to our session is just to get people together and just start filling in the different informations about where to get it, what kind of links? And but, as I said, this is quite, it's open, and it's formal, informal sew. If you have time drop in, help us with completeness. During that time we also do an intro
to using the Associated Github reclaim repository. and how we want to raise issues, because I know Philippi, who is on the court here, has mentioned that there are a few issues with some parts of some collections, that we should at least have a system of tracking and then inform them. And just in general, I don't think we've had much chance to have this kind of synchronous live space where people could just chat, interact with each other. Get to know a little bit more so this is what we're gonn
a trial with this open working group. Just. And then these are just various links for the Github collection, that where we're going to all the documentation, and I'll be sending out an invite for this working, open working session later on today. So that was a shameless plug and slight segue for folks who are interested. with that I am going to return to see if there's any other questions for Kingston. I'm gonna assume that. So thank you much. Thank you very much, Kingston, for presenting what y
ou're doing with plasmodrine, and will be keen to hear and follow up on what you how, how you progress over this next year. And you're definitely yes, definitely. And you'll hear from us when you get the collections shortly. Thanks. Brooke also thanks you in the comments for the inspiring story of your startup in Africa. And so I'm sure you want to follow up always connections all over the place. so I guess we in the last 9 min of this meeting. I want to open the floor up to the community in gen
eral. Do you have any updates, anything new that's happening that you'd like to share of the community. Jenny. Yeah, I can go again. But so I think I'm already mentioned on a previous call. But I'm not sure you might want to meet yourself. I can hear an echo. Sorry it's okay. Yes, I think I mentioned on this call before. We're in the same room. But we, I just got a grant with Jim Hasloff, who is another person that develops quite a lot of open source materials for synthetic biology. we have a 2
year grant to work on more open materials for biological engineering, which is great. But one of the elements is cell lines. So we'll be looking at. What we can do with E. Coli cell lines to make protein expression strains IP. Free for commercial use, which in many cases they're not. You have to pay a lot of licensing fees to the originators the material so that project will probably kick off properly in a couple of months, but just a heads up. But if anybody is keen on kind of open strains we a
lready know of an open picchia that was already published, and so we'll be doing some work with that to to test out some of Scott Powell's yeast collection in there. But we've also just heard from another researcher here in the Uk. In Sheffield, working on vaccine manufacturing, who's very interested in IP free vaccine manufacturing platforms both in E coli and also hex cells. So I've been digging into this week a bit more around kind of mammalian cell lines, and how we can kind of liberate them
. So there's a bit more cell line work kicking off. and I will post some stuff on the Forum about what I found in the coming week or so. But yeah, it's just if anyone's interested in cell lines. We talk a lot about DNA in our meetings, but do keep an eye on the Forum, and feel free to join in that project as we try and find. You know good good materials that we can bring to the world. Adrian: Adrian, would you like to share something? Yeah, maybe that maybe that might be of interest. So I see so
me efforts from David Kong at Mit Media Lab to create a a network of open truns. pipetting robots that could be used by the community. So you might be interested in that. II applied for my app. So that's why I'm I'm trying to share this information. Does he have extra pets? Because because we know of at least 2 labs that already have the open truns, but not the correct for pets, and therefore can't do anything, so maybe they should apply to him for a reduced reduced support. Is he giving away? I
s he giving away devices, Adrian? Or it's just more support to get you up? So so right now, there's a kind of a committee to decide on that one. So it's gonna probably give away the first phase, 10 open control devices. And they are gonna come with about 3, or, I think, 3 modules, the thermost heater shaker, and maybe the heap hipaa filter. And yeah, so but yeah, at at this point. It's more like a like a package. But II think that at least one person that has already an open trunk want to is try
ing to get the thermal cycle separately, and and of course all of these will gonna come with the I don't know. Maybe a P. And 100. I don't think that the final list is is it is set in stone. But yeah, in principle, you you you you could. No, that sounds great. Do. Do share the link about that on the Forum if you can, Adrian. I'm sure there'll be people here keen, too. Try and get get a free, open truns and the kits associated. Okay, sure, thank you very much. And I know there's been a bit of cha
tter. And in the zoom chat about vibrio stuff. I think, Joseph, you posted something on the Forum about vibrio. I don't know if you want to share no worries. If cause you did mention. You have like issues. So no worries, if that's a problem. But yeah, I would redirect you guys to that channel. If you want to hear more about vibrio? IP, good, Jenny. Yeah. So on that point. So there is a night. Very nice paper that's put on the forum within openbi lab. We a couple of times had last year, I mean, i
t may even have been the year before. At this point. A Journal Club around. Kind of interesting bio manufacturing papers. We are trying to re-launch that organized by Communist Annie, who just started his Phd Icgb interest day. So II think that the video paper might actually be a good, a good one to kick off with if we haven't seen it yet. It's quite a nice DNA transformation paper and so we will obviously advertise this around the community. But if anyone would like to join it will be a monthly
maximum journal club but just a different way of kind of meeting people and having bit more of a critical discussion about a specific piece of work. We may or may not have authors involved at different times. Think it depends bit on the paper and availability and other things. Yeah. Just another way to connect just flagging Matt coming soon. Great, that's good to hear. So more opportunities for the network to coalesce grounds beyond these monthly meetings so hopefully, that will be a good oppor
tunity there. any more in the last 2 min, any other updates. Nor is Joseph, we understand, when the we attack tick issues but do thank you for sharing that on the Forum. If that's it, then I won't hold you guys to the hour. But can we thank Kingston once again for presenting about plasmidine and hopefully, we'll hear more about this update soon enough. Christopher should do physical physical clubs. Great. I'll have a good day, evening night to everyone, and we'll see you in a couple weeks time.
Take care, bye. Thanks everyone. I was waiting for Yan Kay music, so I can speak. See you all later. Have a good week.
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