Hello! I am Manu, a biologist and Open Source enthusiast. I did my PhD using yeast genetics to study cell division and then worked in PomBase, a genetics and genomics database.

I always found that existing software tools for DNA engineering were very limiting, and started OpenCloning, an Open Source web application to plan and document DNA engineering.

Why OpenCloning?

DNA engineering is somewhat similar to software development. Bioscientists engineer DNA sequences to grant new properties to cells, or to study the functions of genes in a similar way that we modify code to develop new features.

However, bioengineering still lacks a "version control" system, and popular proprietary solutions don't track changes or do so in a proprietary format that cannot be used elsewhere.

Beyond the usual limitations of UI-only vendor lock-in platforms, the lack of standards hinders automation, which is a huge bottleneck in bioengineering.