Chappell, CR., Quiroz, AP, Kong DS**, Endy D**. “Creating a Popular Foundation for the Bio-Age.” Issues in Science and Technology 41, no. 4 (2025): 60–63.

Abstract

Today, the United States stands to bring the innovations of emerging biotechnologies to scale, growing a bioeconomy that will transform agriculture, medicine, domestic manufacturing, energy, and defense. However, this ambitious vision cannot be actualized if activity is limited to Boston, San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, and a few biotechnology hubs. To ensure everyone can participate in and gain the most from a booming bioeconomy, many more communities must have access to biotechnology at the local level. We believe that a national network of thousands of local labs could enable all Americans to responsibly discover and innovate with biology.

A nationwide network of public bio labs is needed to enable a truly participatory bioeconomy. Much as local libraries laid a foundation for the information age by building American literacy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, community bio labs—we call them LABraries—could usher in the bio-age by building bioliteracy. We envision LABraries as essential civic infrastructure to support scientific research, the prototyping of innovative and entrepreneurial ideas, and workforce training in different community contexts. By mobilizing community resources, including equipment, expertise, and connections to local businesses, LABraries could help people solve problems at multiple scales. A national network of LABraries could alsonurture a generation of people—LABrarians—skilled in helping others discover and use biotechnology safely and responsibly. In such a fully participatory bioeconomy, every community would be in a position to actively shape the future of biotechnology
and harvest its benefits.

https://issues.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/60-63-Chappell-et-al.-LABraries-Summer-2025.pdf