Stories.

Can you DNA barcode specimens on a diving boat with Bento Lab and MinION, with all of your equipment packed into a backpack? And how many species could you sequence in one batch? A team of researchers from Singapore undertook the challenge to find out, and produced one of the first and largest reported examples of DNA barcoding with Bento Lab and MinION to date.

Dr Ames is is making it possible to predict the presence of specific marine species in different regions of the ocean. She uses Environmental DNA (eDNA for short), analysing traces of DNA left by species.

Researchers from Peru have developed a low cost molecular toolkit for COVID-19 detection, using open-source and locally produced reagents.
To test its use in resource-limited situations, they showed proof of concept by running the workflows with Bento Lab.

Could it be possible to track the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria with field equipment?
Researchers from Cambodia, Japan, and the UK used Bento Lab and Oxford Nanopore’s MinION to find out.

Dr Bernice Brewster is developing new, reliable methods for identifying these fish parasites using DNA analysis. Working alongside Kingston University, and the UK Environment Agency, she monitors the introduction of new invasive species.

Dr Elizabeth Duncan and her colleagues took a group of 40 students for a Mediterranean Ecology field trip. The students used Bento Lab to look for parasite infections in bees.

Can a classic DNA extraction method (hot alkaline lysis) be used for emergency microorganism surveillance and detection, and be used with portable field equipment such as Bento Lab? A team of researchers from Greece and United Arab Emirates find out.

BioCoS is using DNA solutions to tackle food fraud. They are applying their technology by testing the authenticity of olive oil.

As part of her PhD, Ineke Knot used portable genomics to study parasites in great apes. Recently she joined biodiversity monitoring company NatureMetrics as a researcher, working from her home lab.

Over the past few years, field mycologists (amateur fungal experts) in the UK have been using Bento Lab to help identify fungal biodiversity and characterise new species to the UK and to science.

Dr Josef Vuch studies amphibians living in underground caves around Trieste, Italy. He uses Bento Lab to extract DNA and to prepare DNA barcodes for sequencing.

Dr Sophie Zaaijer and her team have developed an inexpensive method to prepare ready-to-sequence libraries for MinION in 55 minutes, using Bento Lab.

Participants of YCAM’s Interlab Camp learnt DNA sequencing with Bento Lab and Oxford Nanopore’s MinION, and explored potential links with ethics, art, and design.

David Harries and the Pembrokeshire Fungus Recording Network collect fungus fruit bodies and sequence their DNA barcode. Their data contributes to a better understanding of the relationships between fungus collections in Pembrokeshire, UK.

Stephane Boyer uses Bento Lab to teach molecular biology to students interested in biodiversity. His biodiversity research often takes him to remote places to collect DNA samples.

BiOutils provide teaching materials and know-how to secondary schools in Geneva. Using Bento Lab, they are enabling every student to experience modern experimental biology in their classrooms.

University student Edoardo Gianni and his friends are working on their own biotech projects outside of the college campus. Edoardo has a passion dinoflagellates, marine plankton that glow at night. He wants to identify the genes that makes them glow.

Gianpaolo Rando is on a mission to understand craft beer at molecular level. Inside a Swiss biohackerspace he prepares DNA libraries for sequencing 1,000 beer microbiomes with the Bento Lab.

As a founder of a medical startup and a community lab, Kevin is often on the road. While the rest of his lab stays in Montreal, he brings Bento Lab with him to teach and demonstrate his work.