Ellen Jorgensen

Our interview :

Team Paris Saclay : You are the co-founder and the president of Genspace (a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting citizen science and access to biotechnology), what are you motivations ?

Ellen : Well, I think everyone who started Genspace had different motivation, because its hard to find a place, a lab where we could make synthetic biology. Students in universities have ideas they wanted to try and they need to train, but they don’t have a space to practice because a founding. So they wanted a lab space. I work during 25 years in biotechnology and I though it will be great that people want to do it …. People curious …. And if you look the iGEM, the USA are … the other countries support its teams better. The value of this king of exercise is important to me, and I want to provide a place where people could make biology, genetic biology or anything like that. And also, it was important to my carreer to make something different. I don’t want to be just a PhD scientist in a lab, I wanted to share a project.

Team Paris Saclay : When we talk about the Open Source, people think about computer science, free software, but not about biology, so for you, what is the bio-open source.

Ellen : Well, I think that biology is a natural open source, DNA is everywhere, and the only thing that …. The all biobricks foundation and the idea of the BB library is a necessary and interesting … for mechanism open source 8:05 reprise de la discution

Team Paris Saclay : Do you think that people without scientific education can make and understand biology and synthetic biology ?

Ellen : Its happen every day at genspace

Team Paris Saclay : What are their motivations ?

Ellen : I think that people are curious, curious about the world, this king of technology and they are interesting in it. People that come said it’s good for their carreers to learn a little more about this stuff. Now people come in my class want to develop project in my lab …. You know we have people without formal training at all, doing genetic engineering and making construct ….

Team Paris Saclay : What do you say to people that are afraid by GMO and think it’s too dangerous ?

Ellen : All this technology is very powerful ! Of course there is dangerous side but the promises are unbelievable benefit … And in particular in this technology, as I said DNA is open source, if someone wants to do something related with DNA, he can just extracted it from thing around him. … 12.02 Making biology is just faster and easier.

Team Paris Saclay : When you work on synthetic biology in an academic space you are very controlled, do you follow some rules, laws, do you have constraint as we have in academic center ?

Ellen : Of course we do, and I think its because there’s so much public attention in DIY labs that … We have a scientist biology bord that include the biosafetyafficer from MIT …. A bunch of our people that have degree and many experience … We also have safety training, 13:20 … We dispose of all chemical … It’s a small lab with a lot of funding in an unconventional space … Another thing is we work together in term of ethics, … surrounding …

Team Paris Saclay : We gonna build a basteria wich can degrade PCBs, do you think it is a good idea to put GMO in water ?

Ellen : It’s depend in how you want to doing it ! I mean, it’s not a good idea to just release GMO in water to clean it up…