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 ## Interview O'Reilly BioCoder
 . Who is on your team? What are your backgrounds? How did you meet?
-> We're four biohackers and makers from hackerspace realraum / OpenBioLabGraz in Austria. Martin Jost, Bernhard Tittelbach, Kay Novak and myself: Alexander Murer. Together we have a very diverse skillset and personalities, but our love to hack, tinker and improve unites us. It all started about three years ago when I was sick of the lack of freedom at our university (I was studying molecular biology) and in the education system in general. I'd rather work on real projects than learn massive amounts of theory, so I decided to develop my own bioreactor. Two friends joined to complete our skillset: Bernhard Tittelbach, who is our hardware programmer & electronics engineer, and Martin Jost, a a software programmer and a classmate of mine in molecular biology. We were working at the local hardware hackerspace 'realraum' in Graz, Austria. There we came up with the idea to create a second hackerspace, but focused on biologists! So Martin and I founded 'OLGA' (Open Biolab Graz Austria). Only later, did we find out that other biohackerspaces even existed. Our recent project at Synbio Axlr8r evolved out of our work at OLGA on the bioreactor and after an enlightening meeting in Berlin with biohacker Rüdiger Trojok.
+> We're four biohackers and makers from hackerspace realraum / OpenBioLabGraz in Austria. Martin Jost, Bernhard Tittelbach, Kay Novak and myself: Alexander Murer. Together we have very diverse talents and personalities, but our love to hack, tinker and improve unites us. It all started about three years ago when I was sick of the lack of freedom at our university (I was studying molecular biology) and in the education system in general. I'd rather work on real projects than learn massive amounts of theory, so I decided to develop my own bioreactor. Two friends joined to complete our skill-set: Bernhard Tittelbach, who is our hardware programmer & electronics engineer, and Martin Jost, a a software programmer and a classmate of mine in molecular biology. We were working at the local hardware hackerspace 'realraum' in Graz, Austria. There we came up with the idea to create a second hackerspace, but focused on biologists! So Martin and I founded 'OLGA' (Open Biolab Graz Austria). Only later, did we find out that other biohackerspaces even existed. Our recent project at SynBio Axlr8r evolved out of our work at OLGA on the bioreactor and after an enlightening meeting in Berlin with biohacker Rüdiger Trojok.
 . What is your axlr8r project, why are you doing it, and what’s the potential impact?
-> We're building a Rapid DNA prototyper called KiloBaser. When we started working with Oligos, we first encountered the delays associated with ordering DNA. That frustrated us. Everyone just accepts things as they are, but for us, this frustration was new. So we looked into ways to shorten research iterations. After thinking about it and talking with people, we finally came up with a way to synthesize DNA much quicker and potentially cheaper that it is done today. The axlr8r program gave us the opportunity to quickly put our ideas into practice. So now we're building our own DNA Synthesizer based on microfluidic and magnetic technology. It's also important for us to provide the DIYBio community with an independent way to produce their DNA, instead of relying on the good will of big companies. So we want the device to be both affordable and accessible. The idea is that it will fit on your lab-bench and stays dedicated to your project, creates your Oligos right where they are needed, in your lab.
+> We're building a Rapid DNA prototyper called KiloBaser. When we started working with Oligonucleotides, we first encountered the delays associated with ordering DNA. That frustrated us. Everyone just accepts things as they are, but for us, this frustration was new. So we looked into ways to shorten research iterations. After thinking about it and talking with people, we finally came up with a way to synthesize DNA much quicker and potentially cheaper that it is done today. The axlr8r program gave us the opportunity to quickly put our ideas into practice. So now we're building our own DNA Synthesizer based on microfluidic and magnetic technology. It's also important for us to provide the DIYBio community with an independent way to produce their DNA, instead of relying on the good will of big companies. So we want the device to be both affordable and accessible. The idea is that it will fit on your lab-bench and stays dedicated to your project, creates your Oligos right where they are needed, in your lab.
 . Wildcard 1 - tell the readers something interesting and relevant that does not fit within the questions above.
 > In order to be able to realize our project and take part in the SynBio Axlr8r, it was required that we relocate to Cork, Irleand for the summer.
-The prepartion for that was a very hectic and fun time. Non the less so, because each of us had other comittements, like jobs or university. Additionally, we had just recently merged moved both realraum and OpenBioLabGraz into one new big Bio/Hardware Hacker- and Makerspace. With our team making up more than two thirds of the new space's board and core team, a lot of work went into making sure everything could run smoothly in our absence.
+The preparation for that was a very hectic and fun time. Non the less so, because each of us had other commitments, like jobs or university. Additionally, we had just recently merged both realraum and OpenBioLabGraz into one new big Bio/Hardware Hacker- and Makerspace. With our team making up more than two thirds of the new space's board and core team, a lot of work went into making sure everything could run smoothly in our absence.
-Besides all that, a growing concern were our living accomodations in Cork. As long as students were still having exams there, it seemed as if no reasonable-priced short-term housing was to be had. Certainly nothing for just three months. Finally, we betted on our chances of finding something, being better if we were actually here. So, being thrifty, we booked our flights early and after a few frantic days of searching we lucked out. We found a small house that we could rent from May on. The previous tenants ran it down in such a way, it had to be partially refurbished. Basically the landlord was happy to find someone willing to take it and we moved in with the paint barely dry and the place still being mostly a mess. Think overgrown unintentional mold experiments hiding the dishes in the cuppboards and stuff better not described still hiding in dark corners.
+Besides all that, a growing concern were our living accommodations in Cork. As long as students were still having exams there, it seemed as if no reasonable-priced short-term housing was to be had. Certainly nothing for just three months. Finally, we betted on our chances of finding something, being better if we were actually here. So, being thrifty, we booked our flights early and after a few frantic days of searching we lucked out. We found a small house that we could rent from May on. The previous tenants ran it down in such a way, it had to be partially refurbished. Basically the landlord was happy to find someone willing to take it and we moved in with the paint barely dry and the place still being mostly a mess. Think overgrown unintentional mildew experiments hiding the dishes in the cupboards and stuff better not described still hiding in dark corners.
 > After some (read “lot's of”) work, everything turned out great, however.
 Team muufri moved in with us and jokingly coined the name “Castle Austria”,
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 can host barbecues for all the fantastic people we met here and even managed to convert one of the
 rooms into an additional small workshop.

realraum Graz, Brockmanngasse 15, 8010 Graz, realraum - Verein für Technik in Kultur und Gesellschaft