The microscope was salvaged from a rubbish bin. The centrifuge was made from 3D-printed parts and cheap electronics purchased from Hong Kong.
Most of the other equipment at the BioFoundry, Australia's first community lab for citizen scientists, are cast-offs from university and industry.
Located in Stanmore, BioFoundry has the attributes of a fully fledged science lab even if its walls are black.
"We wanted the lab to feel as counter-culture as possible," says Meow-Ludo Meow-Meow (the University of NSW science student formerly known as Stuart McKellar). "Where if you have a crazy idea you can run with it and make it happen rather than writing it up and getting funding."
Meow-Meow says the lab cost less than $3000 to set up, with funds contributed by members – a motley crew of IT project managers, artists, law students and scientists interested in do-it-yourself biology or biohacking.
"By hacking, we are not referring to stealing of information but deconstructing the traditional ways of doing science and putting it back together in a way that is more cost-effective and accessible," says co-founder Maria Oh, a PhD candidate in molecular biosciences at Sydney University.
"We advocate for open science. We will be keeping an online lab book for all projects undertaken at Biofoundry."
Oh's projects involve quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction or analysing DNA and building a laser microscope, while Meow hopes to work on practical problems such as low-cost tests to determine the safety of drinking water.
"I want kids to bring me a leaf, or wing of an insect, or a piece of sushi, and say 'What's this?' " he says. "I want to be able to show them how to extract the DNA, sequence a gene, and then use that information to identify to a species level what that thing was."
He also has plans to work on a pregnancy test that determines gender and brewing phosphorescent alcohol.
BioFoundry is part of an international network of DIYbio spaces – BioCurious in San Francisco, Genspace in New York and La Paillasse in Paris – that its founders hope will break the cost barrier to science research and education.
"We also hope to engage the public in science in a fun and practical way," Oh says.
The establishment of the community lab comes as funding to science bodies like the CSIRO, NICTA and Australian Research Council has been dramatically cut.
Meow says job prospects for science graduates are bleak, with few opportunities outside of the "hugely political and restrictive" university system.
A membership system will be used to regulate the use of the lab space and equipment, and new members will be trained and supervised.
BioFoundry has also been certified in accordance with the guidelines of the Office of Gene Technology Regulation, Oh says.
"DIYbio is a movement to democratise science. I believe DIYbio will revolutionise the biotech industry, the same way PC did to information technology."