Our Story

In 2009, a group of hobbyists, entrepreneurs, artists and scientists met in a living room to explore their interest in biotechnology. Within a year, co-founders Nurit Bar-Shai, Ellen Jorgensen, Daniel Grushkin, Russell Durrett, and Oliver Medvedik opened Genspace, the first-ever community biotechnology laboratory in downtown Brooklyn, New York. Our purpose was to allow the general public to pursue individual and group projects.

Since then our community has expanded. In 2017, Genspace moved to our new home in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Genspace continues to be a platform for curious people to follow their imaginations—individual member projects have grown into million dollar companies and revolutionary art pieces.

Since 2010, Genspace has provided Biosafety Level 1-compliant lab space to independent researchers, scientists, artists, designers, entrepreneurs, hobbyists, teachers and students. In 2017, we moved to a new facility in Sunset Park where we can provide even more space and resources to our members. Starting in February 2018, we support several Community Projects for members who want to work on group research. 

In our lab, we freely provide supplies and equipment including:

• Micropipettors and Tabletop Centrifuges

• DNA and protein gel electrophoresis equipment

• Thermocyclers, including qPCR machine

• Heat Blocks and Water Baths

• Separate incubators for microbiology and mycology

• Autoclave

• Gloves

• Petri Dishes

• Pipette tips

• Agarose, loading buffer, DNA ladders, 50x TAE, gel stains

• Assorted buffers and common reagents

UPDATE: Genspace has been awarded a grant from the Illumina Corporate Foundation for our Youth STEM Initiatives. The award includes a MiniSeq DNA Sequencing System, BaseSpace Sequencing Hub License, service contract agreements, library preparation kits and sequencing reagents.

Read more here

TESTIMONIALS