We are Counter Culture Labs, a community of scientists, tinkerers, biotech professionals, hackers, and citizen scientists who have banded together to create an open community lab — a microbiology lab built in the spirit of 'hacker spaces' and 'maker spaces', supported by the community it serves to educate. Help us build a space for creative exploration and discovery; a place to innovate, learn, work on fun projects, and tinker with biology and other sciences. Help us build YOUR lab!
For far too long, science has been locked away in the “ivory towers” of universities and research labs. Silicon valley was born out of garage workshops and hobby clubs, the precursor to today’s hacker spaces. We believe that if we build a place with the tools and the community to support them, tomorrow’s great innovators in biotechnology can be born out of spaces like Counter Culture Labs.
Biology is the technology of the 21st century, and has the potential to affect our lives as much as or more than computers did in the 20th century. Our goal is to demystify and democratize this technology, putting tools and knowledge into the hands of those who want to learn. We believe in the power of diversity and peer-to-peer education; everybody has something to teach and everybody has something to learn. Whether you’re ready to start testing that cutting-edge, pre-startup research idea, or just want to play with some bioluminescent algae, this is the place for you!
For far too long, science has been locked away in the “ivory towers” of universities and research labs. Silicon valley was born out of garage workshops and hobby clubs, the precursor to today’s hacker spaces. We believe that if we build a place with the tools and the community to support them, tomorrow’s great innovators in biotechnology can be born out of spaces like Counter Culture Labs.
Biology is the technology of the 21st century, and has the potential to affect our lives as much as or more than computers did in the 20th century. Our goal is to demystify and democratize this technology, putting tools and knowledge into the hands of those who want to learn. We believe in the power of diversity and peer-to-peer education; everybody has something to teach and everybody has something to learn. Whether you’re ready to start testing that cutting-edge, pre-startup research idea, or just want to play with some bioluminescent algae, this is the place for you!
History
Counter Culture Labs was one of the first community labs in the world, coming out of the early biohacker scene in the Bay Area. The first get-togethers with the idea of starting a lab following the example of our sister lab BioCurious across the bay started in November of 2012. Our first meetings were at the old Sudo Room location in downtown Oakland, but by 2013 Ahnon Milham started hosting regular meetings at her home, and we had set up a tiny lab in a spare room. "Counter Culture Labs" became official on Sept 27, 2013, with Ahnon as our first president. On July 1, 2014, we eventually moved into our beautiful current location at the Omni Commons, together with Sudo Room and a bunch of other collectives.
The Omni
The Omni Oakland Commons is a truly amazing community space in the Temescal neighborhood of Oakland. A rambling 23,000 sqft 1930’s building, it now houses a vibrant assortment of collectives, including our direct neighbors hackerspace Sudo Room, free university Bay Area Public School, a print studio, a wellness collective, a screen printing shop, a bookstore/cafe, and much more. So much better than just finding a space all by our lonesome!
Donating to CCL