Zappore

Zap-pore: A low-cost electroporation tool for education and exploration (June 2020 – Aug. 2020)

Affiliation: Community Biotechnology Initiative, MIT Media Lab

An electroporator is a fundamental tool for biotechnology that allows users to transform bacterial cells by applying a voltage through a sample. Zap-pore repurposes a flyswatter to create a portable, open-source electroporation tool that mitigates the high costs of conventional electroporators. I helped optimize the electroporation cuvette, with the goal of creating a DIY-friendly prototype that can hold a sufficient sample volume and enable for controlled current flow.