---
title: ""Mueller is the co-leader of a new initiative started on Sunday to…"
date: 2020-03-07
source: facebook
type: Archer T. Ships shared a link.
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# "Mueller is the co-leader of a new initiative started on Sunday to…

*March 7, 2020 · Facebook*

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[https://crosscut.com/2020/03/crowdsourcing-against-coronavirus-seattle-biologists-work-diy-test-kit](https://crosscut.com/2020/03/crowdsourcing-against-coronavirus-seattle-biologists-work-diy-test-kit){target="_blank"}
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\"Mueller is the co-leader of a new initiative started on Sunday to begin researching ways a crowdsourced test might come about. Biologist Dr. Thomas Landrain, who started France's first community biology lab La Paillasse, also leads the international effort. Community biology labs function as resource and training hubs where people interested in do-it-yourself biology can safely gain lab skills and experience with common tools and equipment.\
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"\[The DIY biology\] community has probably one mission today with regard to the coronavirus, \[and\] it\'s to produce an accessible alternative \[test\] that's open source, because it needs to be easily shareable anywhere in the world ... and as simple as possible, so that it only needs one person, who\'s not necessarily an expert, to perform the test," says Landrain via video chat.\
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Mueller and Landrain are recruiting people from around the world to join their project on Landrain's collaborative online platform, Just One Giant Lab (JOGL). Landrain says community labs, which often have only a few dozen participants each, may not have the knowledge or bandwidth to develop and scale bigger projects with extra complexity. Combined, they have a better chance.\
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"JOGL is a good platform for connecting more people," Mueller says. "We could do it in a more ad hoc manner of just finding people randomly on the internet, and that's what a lot of community projects that happen internationally have done. It starts up in one community lab first and then over time they build up some online presence that other people get attracted to ... but JOGL, I think, is a good platform that could make the process of recruiting more people to your project much easier and faster and also make it easier to publicize the progress using one central location."\
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About two dozen people have signed up for the coronavirus project.\"\
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[https://crosscut.com/2020/03/crowdsourcing-against-coronavirus-seattle-biologists-work-diy-test-kit](https://crosscut.com/2020/03/crowdsourcing-against-coronavirus-seattle-biologists-work-diy-test-kit){target="_blank"}\
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[https://app.jogl.io/project/118#news](https://app.jogl.io/project/118#news){target="_blank"}
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