Lifefabs Institute

About

Lifefabs Institute is the UK’s only open-access biofabrication lab, built to support anyone, from local residents to post-docs, in experimenting with biomaterials, living systems and sustainable technologies.

We believe creative life science and biofabrication shouldn’t be locked inside private laboratories and universities. That’s why we support the full spectrum of creative work: early-stage experimentation, passion projects, spin-outs and applied research, helping projects move faster, more agile, and de-risked.

At our core: everyone can be a scientist. Research pathways should be accessible. More projects need to reach the real world.

Founded in 2024, our wet lab and maker-space is designed to foster collaboration across disciplines, a place for shared learning between, scientists, artists, designers, creatives, neurosurgeons and the public. We offer open-access days and project desk-membership to develop your research, alongside workshops, courses and educational programmes to help you take your first step into the field of biofabrication.

Our facilities work as a universal fabricator across scales.
That might mean engineering a protein or cell to express colour, dyeing textiles with bacteria, printing a vascular implant to train a surgeon, running a citizen science project sequencing algae strains in canals for pollution data; or scaling up to architectural fabrication, like building pavilions out of mycelium.

As a biofabrication lab, we also partner with schools and national science festivals, engaging 3,000 kids and young people in our lab every year, with plenty of ways to get involved.

 Come to one of our OpenLab Nights, on the first Wednesday of every month, to meet our team and range of researchers, or drop us an email or a message on Instagram.