Biotech Without Borders

NYC's Member-led Community Biolab

About

Biotech Without Borders was an all-volunteer, member-led, community lab with 501(c)(3) status in the USA. It was founded in 2017 by Dr. Ellen Jorgensen after she stepped down as Director of Genspace to continue her work democratizing biotechnology. The mission was that engaging the end users—all of us—in biotech through hands-on participation is the best way to ensure a greater future for us all. Shouldn’t something this valuable be practiced worldwide, and by the most diverse array of practitioners?

To achieve this mission, the lab was engaged in an ongoing process to steward a shared lab space in New York City. Members were invited to shape the lab for their individual and/or group projects by finding consensus among each other using a cooperative decision making software called Loomio.

As of mid-2026, its website (biotechwithoutborders.org) is entirely unreachable (server refuses connections on both port 80 and 443, domain registration still active) and its Meetup group’s last event was July 2023 — three years stale. Status here is marked unknown rather than active. Its IRS nonprofit filing (EIN 82-1893774) is current through tax period December 2025 and its exemption is not revoked, so the organization likely still exists on paper even if current programming/activity is unconfirmed.

How can you get involved?

If you want to try reaching the group, its public Matrix room may still be monitored.