Darwin logo

India's Biggest Evolutionary Movement in Biology

25th, 26th, 27th & 28th November, 2020

Somaiya Vidyavihar, Mumbai

About Darwin

Darwin is an International Conference for 101+ Darwinians and 200+ Biohackers and is India’s Biggest Evolutionary Movement in Biology. It is an initiative to promote Open Science and revolves around the theme of Evolution for the year 2019. It includes learning segments such as Biohackathon, Workshops, Talks, Panel Discussions and Field Visits.

Our Story

"We started a community bio lab, Bioriidl in 2015 when we realized that there is a the need for such space. Few students, alumni, and professionals were struggling to find a space for their project to work. Their own college labs were fully occupied by practicals and lectures.

There was a need!

So, we started this movement 4 years back, we grew from an empty space to fully equipped lab, from 13 to 100+ community members, from nothing to Something :) And we want to keep doing this and reach out to more people to help them build their dream project and facilitate their local communities.

We want more like us...

So we are conducting DARWIN to reach out to people like us, who believe in open science, community-driven innovations, and entrepreneurship.

Help us build the culture of open science. Be a part of this movement."

~ Bhavna Pandya, Innovation Catalyst at riidl and Bioriidl Head

Event Overview

Biohackathon in India

Biohackathon- India’s Biggest Biohacking Movement is designed to provide space to bio-enthusiasts to witness and develop solutions to the existing problems. We are trying to provide a platform where biohackers will try and solve various problems in biology. It aims at building a great Bio-Community and foster imagination and innovation.

Talk Panels

Talks and Panels

Hacking is a creative problem solving to improve one's life, and we are turning the focus on our bodies and biology. In Biohackathon, Biohackers will try to hack and improve biomaterials such as pigments, fuels, DNA or fungi. It can also result in more conceptual explorative projects to see the potential for future products.

Workshops

Workshops

The workshop is aimed at to improve science literacy among nonscience majors in the context of practising DIY biology. As scientific and social issues are central to most assemblies, so through workshops we are trying to motivate our exploration of major ideas and helping students see what is interesting and important in areas of biology unfamiliar to them.

Biohackathon

Bio Hackathon

Hacking is a creative problem solving to improve one's life, and we are turning the focus on our bodies and biology. In Biohackathon, Biohackers will try to hack and improve biomaterials such as pigments, fuels, DNA or fungi. It can also result in more conceptual explorative projects to see the potential for future products.

Our Winner

Our Speakers

Joe Davis

The Keynote Speaker at Darwin 2019 - Joe Davis is a Research Affiliate in the Department of Biology at MIT and an Artist Scientist in the George Church Laboratory at Harvard Medical School. Davis created the World’s First “Memory Crystals” of information-bearing DNA. His wide range of research projects include creating “DNA Programming Languages” for inserting poetic texts and graphics into living organisms, putting a map of the Milky Way into the ear of a transgenic mouse, experiments with Adam Zaretsky on how E. coli respond to jazz and other sounds and developing an Audio Microscope allowing you to hear living cells, each with its own acoustic signature.

David S. Kong

David Sun Kong, Ph.D. is a Synthetic Biologist, community organizer, musician, and photographer based in Lexington, MA. He is the Director of the MIT Media Lab's new Community Biotechnology Initiative. David conducted his graduate studies at MIT’s Media Lab, receiving a Master's degree for developing technology for printing nanostructures with energetic beams and a Ph.D. for demonstrating the first gene synthesis in a microfluidic (“lab-on-a-chip”) system.

Thomas Landrain

Thomas Landrain is a researcher in synthetic biology who has become an entrepreneur to build ecosystems facilitating open, inclusive and collaborative science and innovation, convinced that there is no monopoly on great ideas. He is Co-Founder of the Just One Giant Lab (JOGL), first research and innovation laboratory operating as a distributed, open and massive mobilisation platform for volunteer-based, IP-free task solving.

Erik Zepka

Erik Zepka is a researcher, scientist, artist and philosopher that creates platforms to rethink how we engage with science and technology. He has presented at conferences and institutions internationally including NYU, ISEA, SFU, Border Sessions, Pikselfest and the University of the Arts London. He created the interdisciplinary research project based at xox labs and co-founded the Vancouver-based community lab the Open Science Network.

Anshu Bhardwaj

Dr. Anshu Bharadwaj obtained her Ph.D. in Life Sciences (2008) from Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad. The focus of her Ph.D. thesis was on prioritizing Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNPs) in disease association studies to identify potential biomarkers.

Jacinta D'Souza

Prof. Jacinta D'Souza currently works as a Professor and Chairperson of the School of Biological Sciences, Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences. She is a Ciliary Biologist and her research team is currently investigating three related scientific platforms.

Benefits & Opportunities

Talk Panels

Networking

Talk Panels

Seed Funding

Talk Panels

Scholarships

101+

Darwinians

200+

Bio Hackers

5+

Global Speakers

40+

Projects

10+

Workshops

Pre Events

Talk Panels

BioBricks

In association with iGEM Bioriidl Somaiya, Biobytes was organised to create a platform for bio-background students to integrate and learn all the online tools easily, as multidisciplinary research projects are expanding worldwide.

Talk Panels

BioBytes

BioBytes in collaboration with Facebook Developers' Circle was organised that aided the knowledge of the audience on “Incorporating technology in healthcare sector.” The audience experienced Virtual Reality sessions.

Talk Panels

Roadshow

In collaboration with Global Bio-India, BIRAC and Facebook Developer Circles Mumbai, Roadshow was organised wherein panelists talked on research that is being conducted at their companies R&D labs on biotech products.

Talk Panels

Agar Art

In association with the American Society of Microbiology (ASM), Bioriidl had conducted Agar Art in collaboration with Somaiya Initiatives For Research and Consultancy (SIRAC). The participants were amazed after seeing the wonderful patterns created by microbes on the agar plate.

Talk Panels

Microbial Mapping

Although bacteria are visible nowhere in our daily routines, they do, however, occupy every nook and cranny of our life in various ways. Microbial Mapping is an endeavor to understand and identify the microscopic life around us in our Somaiya Vidyavihar Campus.

An Initiative of

Organized By

Backed By

Supported By

Darwin © Copyright 2019. All rights reserved.