BIOKEA LAB · BERKELEY, CA
The BioKEA Large Data Collider (LDC) is a combined wet-lab + compute platform in Berkeley, California — and the backbone of our molecular sequencing service for environmental DNA (eDNA) and related customers. Space secured in late 2025; move-in ; operating alongside partner institutions.
OPERATIONAL
WHERE WE ARE · BAY AREA
The LDC also runs as a molecular sequencing service for environmental-DNA and biodiversity-omics customers — DNA barcoding, eDNA, qPCR, and long-read genomics, project-rate engagements per scope. See the services catalog →
OPERATIONAL · HARDWARE
Built across 2025–2026 through scrappy hustle at Bay Area biotech auctions — San Jose, San Francisco, Berkeley — picking up near-new hardware at roughly one-tenth retail cost. Positioned to run serious throughput on public-interest projects.
Thermo KingFisher Flex — 3-unit fleet
Magnetic-bead purification at 96-well scale, running in parallel. Paired with an Eppendorf epMotion 5075 liquid handler for end-to-end sample prep.
2× Qiagen QIAgility
Automated PCR prep with reproducible pipetting across 96- and 384-well plates. Backed by a stable of thermal cyclers for parallel amplification.
2× Roche LightCycler 480 II
Real-time PCR on a 384-well block, doubled up for high-throughput absolute quantification. Joined by an Applied Biosystems StepOne, capillary electrophoresis, and fluorometry.
Oxford Nanopore Promethion 2
Two flow cells of long-read nanopore sequencing on demand. Live on site since November 2025 — the heart of the LDC.
Full inventory (~80 items) available on request.
OPERATIONAL · BUGPICKER
Bulk trap samples — Malaise, pitfall, bycatch — go in; barcode-ready plates come out. BugPicker images each specimen, triages it with computer-vision models, and physically picks and plates it for the LDC molecular pipeline. Most effective in the 2–6 mm size range in its current configuration — the band where the bulk of trap-sample diversity lives.
It is why bulk-sorted barcoding through the LDC stays fast at volume: the sorting step is automated, not a bottleneck of human hours.
DIVERSITYSCANNER · COMING SOON
A collaborative imaging platform for high-throughput specimen screening. BioKEA is adopting a unit as part of the California Institute for Biodiversity (CIB) collaborative expansion. Computer-vision models generate interpretable attention heatmaps that reveal which morphological features drive each species assignment, feeding validated specimens into the LDC molecular pipeline. Alongside BugPicker, it extends automated picking below the 2 mm class.
Molecular sequencing as a service for eDNA and biodiversity customers. We also take pipeline integration and capability-development conversations.
