A Participatory Approach to Biotechnology
August 26, 2025
At the end of the nineteenth century, industrialist Andrew Carnegie began donating some of his vast fortune to construct library buildings across the United States. Just the buildings—the books and maintenance would be the responsibility of the communities. There are now some 1,600 Carnegie libraries across the country, from Chula Vista, California, to Caribou, Maine. This—along with support for professional librarians—helped lay the foundations for a broadly literate and educated public that was prepared to take on the challenges of the twentieth century.
Could a similar effort prepare today’s citizens for the emerging bioeconomy? Callie R. Chappell, Ana Paulina Quiroz, David Sun Kong, and Drew Endy argue that “a national network of thousands of local labs … could enable all Americans to responsibly discover and innovate with biology.”
In their ambitious vision, community bio labs would become “essential civic infrastructure to support scientific research, the prototyping of innovative and entrepreneurial ideas, and workforce training in different community contexts.” By encouraging bioliteracy for all, they see a path for communities to shape the future of biotechnology—and harvest its benefits.