Ingmar Riedel-Kruse
Stanford University
Interactive Biotechnology: Cloud Labs, Biotic Games, Museum Exhibits, DIY kits, and more

Modern biotechnology gets increasingly powerful to manipulate and measure microscopic biological processes. Nevertheless, no platform exists to truly interact with these processes, certainly not with the convenience that we are accustomed to from our electronic smart devices. In my talk I will provide the rational for such "Interactive Biotechnology" and conceptualize its core component, the BPU (biotic processing unit), which is then connected to an according user interface. I will demonstrate multiple platforms, such as scalable biology cloud experimentation labs, tangible museum exhibits, biotic video games, or low-cost interactive DIY kits using smartphones. The biophysical phenomena featured on these platforms utilize the photo- and chemotaxis response of organisms like Euglena and Physarum - resulting in spatio-temporal dynamics from the single cell to the self-organized multi-cellular scale, e.g., bioconvection. The enabling technology ranges from Lego mindstorms and Scratch all the way to high-end hard- and software - depending on application and target group. I will discuss applications for formal and informal education as well as for professional and citizen science and even diagnostics. Hence, we turn traditionally observational microscopy into an interactive experience.

Ingmar H. Riedel-Kruse is an Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at Stanford University. His lab focuses on Multi-cell Biophysics and Interactive Biotechnology. The advancements of "interactive and playful" electronics provide a major inspiration for the lab as current biotechnology has many parallels with electronics 5 decades ago, suggesting novel means for putting microbiology into the hands of experts and lay people alike. Ingmar received his Diploma in Theoretical Physics at the Technical University Dresden, did his PhD in experimental biophysics at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, followed by a postdoc at Caltech.