Counter Culture Labs

Bioluminescent bacteria from The ODIN! The glowing genes come from Vibrio fischeri, a marine bacterium found in squid gut. The ODIN cloned the genes into E. coli for easy growth 👽

In nature, the gentle glow enables the squid to camouflage through "counter-illumination"— blending in with moonlight to eliminate its silhouette, hiding it from predators below.

Other bioluminescent organisms we have at lab include glowing plants and algae.

Join us on Myco Mondays to grow culinary mushrooms! Pink oyster mushroom pictured 🍄 Events link in bio.

To***co calli (stem cells) producing betalain! Leaf discs were transformed with beetroot genes for red pigment production. Then plated on callus induction medium.

After a month, some calli began regenerating some organs! 🌱 Roots in first pic, shoots in second.

Artwork from our "Painting with Microbes" event 🎄Winter Edition ❄️

In this workshop, we provided participants with petri dishes as the canvas and colorful genetically engineered microbes as the pallete. 🎨

[Our microbes have chromoprotein and fluorescent protein genes from marine organisms. They take 3 days to multiply and produce vibrant colors.]

We hope you enjoy this photo gallery ~ Happy Holidays!

Get hyped! We're setting up 2 more plant biology racks for our growing plant biology division and can use your help!

Support from Volunteers like yourself make science possible at Counter Culture Labs. 🫶 In the Plant Biology Division, CCL members are growing ornamental plants, engineering trees to be more efficient at photosynthesis, propagating plants via tissue cultures, and much more!

Join us this Saturday 2-4:30pm 🌱 RSVP link in bio

We've got a new aquatic biology division at CCL! Pictured here is our coral reef tank 🪸

We will be growing coral under various LEDs and observing morphology in response to these lighting treatments.

We also have flasks of bioluminescent algae that we want to add to our saltwater tanks 🌟

If you'd like to be part of our group, feel free to drop by to our 6:30pm meetup this Tuesday! More details can be found on www.meetup.com/counter-culture-labs

We're 60% of the way to our goal! Support community biology and youth education by donating - link in bio

We're nearly there! Help support 21st century biotechnology education at our community biology lab!

Why donate to Counter Culture Labs? We are a unique educational facility, offering high-tech biology equipment and hands-on workshops to citizen scientists like you! No biology background required, just an eagerness to learn.

Plus, we incubate projects that academia and industry can't. Your contribution goes toward a unique mission of democratizing access to wet-lab biology and paves the path for new discoveries in biology. Donation link in bio👩‍🔬

Monstera deliciosa houseplant nodes in test tubes! 🪴

Monsteras are aesthetically pleasing plants to have at home. In their workshop, Jas and Anthony teach students how to set up their own plant tissue cultures for micropropagation

Micropropagation is a method of quickly growing a new plant from a small chunk of plant tissue (in this case, a node from the stem)

From the node, shoots and roots will develop. Plant growth regulators are added at various stages induce formation of these essential plant organs 😃

Stay tuned for a plant tissue culture workshop coming to our lab in a couple weeks!

Mouse fibroblast cultures at Counter Culture Labs! 🧫

These cells were grown in FBS, viewed under the microscope to assess confluency, then counted with trypan blue dye exclusion method for viability

We've just installed a new RO/DI water filtration system! 💧

Reverse osmosis deionized water is exceptionally pure and perfect for sensitive marine biology investigations and chemistry experiments.

We can't wait to grow saltwater macroalgae and phytoplankton! 🪸

To***co seed storage experiment 🌱

Tabacum rustica seeds were stored in the -20C freezer for a couple months and germination rate was tested on a grid of agar. All seeds except one germinated!

Our method of storage successfully preserved the viability of our seeds! 🎉 We'll be using this protocol from now on for long term seed storage