Equipment is pretty trivial to design+build, and additionally there's a robust secondary market in lab equipment. And, for most stuff that isn't cutting-edge, t

Equipment is pretty trivial to design+build, and additionally there's a robust secondary market in lab equipment. And, for most stuff that isn't cutting-edge, the cost is in build quality. The recent reversal of the trend away from open hardware is nice. But, most "DIY bio" equipment has the feeling of scratching a geek itch more than anything else. The important stuff, however, is the consumables-- enzymes, antibodies, chemicals and so forth. A good market for cheap reagents or a few good suppliers of cheap reagents+optics would do more for DIY bio than all the kickstarted copycat hardware in the world (with the exception of fluid handling robots maybe)