Economical View

The economical considerations regarding our project were carried out according to the motto:

Make the world a better place - Open access for scientific progress

In the center of every economic analysis are the customers and their needs and desires. Every commercial company is interested to satisfy and deal with all customer needs for better sales figures, and in order to maintain regular clientele. Both measures aim for higher financial profits. On the global seller’s market of technical laboratory equipment there is a permanent competition between the existing providers. This competition depends on these financial profits: technical improvement followed by price wars. Besides, good price-performance ratios always catch customers and influence their purchase decision.

Take a look at cost calculations for technical equipment including development, production, transport, warehousing and sale. Usually, you will find low material costs but really high personnel, transport and warehousing costs. At least financial corporate profit is a big cost point. In general, these factors are making technical equipment for labs really expensive and so one unattractive.

We follow a strategy to circumvent unnecessary costs for customers by realizing a social vision. In accordance with the principle of open source including both open hardware and open source, information where to get the necessary components, quantities, a step-by-step technical construction manual and circuit diagrams could be published online for free. So our profit is not of financial nature but is instead based on recognition and on motivating other iGEM teams and companies to spread the idea of open hardware, too. In accordance with the motto do-it-yourself we offer low budget versions while reducing all potential costs but not the material costs. Customers with a little technical skill and willingness to try something new could use our step-by-step building instructions.

To make our whole idea more user-friendly we thought over the offering of device kits. With this theoretical method customers don't have to order a lot of separate device parts from diffrent componies but still were not able of flexibility. Flexible with regard to potential new modifications of the devices including the choise of other building parts or a replenishment.

At least we want to mention that our vision is limited in getting acceptance by companies on the global seller market. These companies, parts of them global players, are profit orientated and following another firm strategy. Our vision is standing against this as non-profit-idea finding acceptance in other groups of customers with lower budgets.

WatsOn

The measurement device WatsOn for our 2D biosensor, too, has been designed accordingly. So far, no comparable devices could be found on the commercial market. Here, we definitely have a pioneer role. Following our do-it-yourself method everybody can create his own WatsOn for 310 $ using the given building instructions. Components for rebuliding are easy availible all over the world.

Such low prices with the acceptance of self-building opens a grand new customer market and offers competition to commercial saleable products. Especially in developing counties our WatsOn could help and its low rebuilding costs are making it possible.

WatsOn's self-made concept makes it available for low budged institutions

However, please always remind yourself of the respective safety aspects when dealing with GMOs and human pathogens.

OD/F Device

One of our greater visions we share with the synthetic biology community is that everyone interested in biological work should have access to basic laboratory equipment. With our OD/F Device we are able to offer a low cost solution for community labs, biohackers and high schools.

In general we have to make a difference between our OD and our F device. The reason for this is the bad comparability to commercial devices. These don't combine the measure of fluorescence and OD. With our OD/F we offer a solution to combine both measurement methods in one device. With our given instructions it is also possible to build two separate devices one for OD and one for F. In this context we offer the user a higher flexibility of choice. The user is also able to modify our device according to his own ideas and wishes.

Commercially obtainable spectrophotometers like [http://www.opticsplanet.com/unico-model-s-1205-spectrophotometer-5-nm-bandpass.html UNICO S-1205], for example, costs 1.249 $ or more, and can measure optical density only. At the same time they are heavy, not portable and therefore not easy to handle. But compared to our device it is able to work with a broader range of wavelengths.

Comparable to our developed device in the points measuring range and portability is the OD-meter [http://www.laboratory-equipment.com/laboratory-equipment/cell-density-meter.php CO 8000]. This device measures also the OD at 600 nm but still costs almost 920 $. Our OD/F Device can measure OD as well as fluorescence for less than 60 $.

Cost saving lies here round about 850 $. All you need is to invest some time to construct our OD/F Device and this could also be a positive learning effect for schools and universities. Therefore, we present a solution for low budget institutions like schools, universities, community labs and the biohacking scene. Besides commercial [http://www.moleculardevices.com/systems/microplate-readers/fluorescent-readers/gemini-xps plate reader] are also available on the market, too. To compare our device with this comercial devices is really difficult. No portable devices like ours could be found which can also measure at a wave-band of 480 nm.

In our cooperation with the Kaiser-Karls-Gymnasium and with NEAnderLab one of our target groups gathered first experience using our OD/F device. As result we received the answer of our question if the device is useable in daily practice with teenagers. And we got a positive feedback for this. Even young people are able to use and understand our device.

Possible application of our OD/F device

Advantages/Disadvantes OD/F device to commercial availiable devices