What if everyone, everywhere had access to synthetic biology education and techniques?
Building upon the tradition of the MIT Media Lab’s “How to Make (Almost) Anything” which started the Fab Lab / Makerspace movement, “How to Grow (Almost) Anything” is laying the foundation for a global DIY movement in bioengineering and synthetic biology. At its base is an eponymous course teaching cutting-edge principles and skills to bio-enthusiasts of all backgrounds. Augmenting this is a global network of “Nodes,” community biolabs serving both local populations and the global HTGAA community.
The course is taught annually in MIT’s spring term in person at the MIT Media Lab with enrollment from undergraduate and graduate students of both MIT & Harvard, and is also simultaneously taught online at no cost to thousands of Global Students spanning six continents. 2025 saw 1300 Global Students enroll from 81 countries, ranging from high school students to retirees and everything in between. Course enrollment continues to accelerate, building on 2024’s 600 Global Students from 59 countries.
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Anyone, anywhere can sign up to take HTGAA as a Global Student, free of charge! Around the New Year a Signup Form will be posted here; just fill it out and submit it before class begins in February!
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HTGAA Nodes are communities and labs that students can join to potentially perform the experiments of the course, participate in study support groups led by Global TAs, work on final projects, access lab space and equipment beyond the course proper, and/or take advantage of additional lectures or educational opportunities, either in-person or remote, depending on what opportunities are offered at each Node. The costs for the experiments and lab access is set by each node individually.