Baltimore UNDER Ground Science Space

Community and Individual Member Projects - Central to BUGSS' mission is the provision of lab space to individuals and groups within our community who wish to conduct experiments of their own design. Individuals pay membership fees to BUGSS, which arrangement enables them to access equipment and facilities at the BUGSS lab as well as a small number of disposable reagents. In this way, we dramatically reduce startup costs for those interested in pursuing high-risk, non-traditional, multi-disciplinary and early-stage projects. In 2022, BUGSS' most active community project was Open Insulin, an initiative to synthesize and produce insulin at community scale to compete with high-cost, insulin analogs produced by pharmaceutical companies. BUGSS members focused on optimizing the growth of host E. coli cells in a bioreactor, a device that regulates and optimizes cell growth. By increasing cell mass, we can dramatically increase the amount of insulin protein produced in those cells. Our team of ten members met one or more times per week to collaborate on this project. We also strengthened our connection with the national Open Insulin Foundation and a second research site, Counter Culture Labs, through monthly inter-lab meetings. In addition to our community projects, we had individual members who pursued projects at BUGSS. These included genetic engineering of plant species for which few genetic tools currently exist, creation of plant cellulose through genetic engineering, analysis of bacteria living in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, and engineering of coral to resist bleaching and global warming. We also continued our support for early-stage entrepreneurs, with three companies being based at BUGSS and conducting research in our facility. Two participate in our Joint Membership program with Harbor Launch at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology, thereby benefiting from the scientific resources at BUGSS and the business and legal resources provided to Harbor Launch Associates.

Youth Courses and School Programs - BUGSS also offers courses to groups of students (school programs) both in partnership with other local nonprofits and by direct recruitment of student populations such as homeschool students. In collaboration with scientists from Carnegie Institute of Washington and Project Bioeyes, we continued the development and delivery of a one-week Microbes In The Classroom course that we delivered to students at two Baltimore middle schools. We delivered six youth courses to the general public with an average of nine students per course. Three were part of our new Girls Coding Club, in which Johns Hopkins University students taught coding to middle-school girls. In addition, we developed new partnerships with STEMcx and Latino Educational Advancement Fund. For these two organizations, we delivered nine courses that served students from historically excluded groups.

iGEM - In 2022, BUGSS once again mentored a team competing in the international Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM). Unlike in previous years, the team in 2022 was a joint venture between BUGSS and a community lab in New York City, Genspace, which together sponsored the East Coast BioCrew team. BUGSS provided mentoring for the team throughout the spring and summer. Students at the two sites met weekly via Zoom to design experiments, research the social and ethical implications of their project, interview experts, and produce poster and video presentations of their project. Participants local to BUGSS also attended the lab on Saturdays to conduct their research, this year focused on genetically engineered bacteria to degrade PCBs, a toxic, legacy chemical that contaminates much of our environment and which is particularly injurious to human health. Our team expanded this year to consist of 23 high school students and eleven mentors, who were professional scientists, post-baccalaureate and graduate students. As a culmination of their work, team members attended the 2022 iGEM Jamboree either virtually or by traveling to Paris (six students and one mentor), where they presented their work to the judge, met other teams and earned a silver medal for their accomplishments.

Adult Courses and Seminars - BUGSS teaches courses to members and the general public. Courses explore aspects of modern biotechnology, bioinformatics, genetics and molecular biology, and focus on teaching participants both concepts and laboratory techniques. Rebounding from the largely virtual courses during the coronavirus pandemic, we offered three multi-week courses called Molecular Biology Bootcamp: Building A Kill Switch In Bacteria, Responsible Bioengineering For Amateurs And Educators, and Build-a-Genome, and eight Lab Skills Nights, which are short courses that teach a particular technique. BUGSS also offered eleven seminars on topics including Computer-Aided Drug Design: Taking An Idea To The Clinic, Counting Shrimp With Sonar, Digital Equity In Baltimore, Microbes In Space, Unraveling The Mysteries of Long-COVID, Microbes At Work, The Story Beyond The Stool Sample, Sweet Talkers: Interaction Of Plants With Benign Microbes, In Sickness And In Health, Can We Clone That?, and Bacteriophage-Based Control Of Bacterial Pathogens. Collectively, our courses and seminars impacted 453 people in 2022.