In-Person Workshop - Register Here!

In this workshop, we will be going over the basics of how you can get started with biology, what organisms you can start working with, managing expectations, prototyping, and how to incorporate it into your creative practice.

We'll be following along with some tutorials on where to start, some insight into how to design an organism (with a Benchling), as well as some really great tips on biosafety, chemistry tips, and resources.

All workshop participants will receive a booklet filled with useful materials to plan out their next bio-based project!

About the Instructor

Ananda Gabo is a designer currently based in Toronto, but has been making work around the themes of biofabrication since 2011.

During the day, they work for the Ontario Government… in their spare time, they are an organizer of Culture² (pronounced “Culture Culture”), a platform for creative biology, ancestral knowledge, and community science.



In 2021, Ananda won 2nd place for the Google x Biodesign Challenge, 2020 they were an Ada Lovelace Fellow for the Open Hardware Summit, and in 2019 they were Community Bio Fellow (Community Bio Summit).

In 2022, they won the Future Makers Grant (supported by the City of Toronto) and an Ontario Arts Council grant for their biodesign collective CRTCL Crafting, which aims to explore and recontextualize our relationship with science and how designers can use biology to create innovative manufacturing and prototyping practices.

Ananda also currently is part of Dias:stories (part of the Public Visualization Lab), in researching how SE Asian diasporic narratives can be shared through digital mediums and games.

Workshop Setup Requirements

• Enthusiasm to learn about biology and an eagerness to get creative!