A biofabrication research institute bringing impactful & inclusive bioscience research to life.

The Lifefabs Institute BSL 1 lab space is the UK’s open-access collaborative biofabrication playground.

We provide scientists, engineers, creatives, and communities access to low-cost research-grade facilities to bring their projects to real-world applications.

Our mission is to support and ecosystem of healthcare and life-science projects at the intersection of material biomanufacturing. We believe anyone can contribute to the field of scientific discovery and provide a hub for researchers to invent, build and translate projects into impactful functional outputs.

Our Mission

Services

Your Biofabrication Laboratory

Research access is difficult.

‍Our importance lies at delivering substantially faster and flexible timelines from basic research ideas to scalable working prototypes.

By bringing interdisciplinary people together to experiment and accelerate the translation of pioneering life science research into real-world solutions. We can foster a community of hands-on experimentation, shared-learning and accelerated de-risked innovation we can address critical challenges in health, sustainability and society.

Partnering with University Research Labs:
‍We collaborate with traditional research labs to recover, advance and scale high-impact projects that traditional pipelines miss due to risk, scale or institutional inertia.

‍Translational Platform for Spin-Outs:
‍We serve as an agile launchpad for PhD graduates to spin out their innovations 50% faster than traditional start-ups.

‍Collaborative R&D:
‍Our Labs actively partner with leading organisations to foster cross-sector project development to accelearate R&D.

We are committed to activating impactful research projects that directly engage local communities, offering accessible science education, and equipping both novices and experienced researchers with the skills to work safely and effectively at the bench.

Core Facilities

The Labs

Interdisciplinary Research Labs:
Collectively Transforming Ideas

Our Institute is made up of a network of researchers, academics, and residents from a wide range of disciplines, levels and backgrounds.
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‍By having our local-resident researchers work alongside academics our projects gain better understanding of their contexts, local contraints and translations, which helps build a community of ideas that solve real issue and become useful in their contexts.

To achieve our mission of supporting impactful research developed by all, we house three research labs as working groups.

Click below to learn more about our research labs.

Living Fabrics Lab

Transforming Textiles to be
programmable & sustainable.

Medical Print Lab

Exploring the future of biomedical printing technologies.

Engineered Living Materials

Evolving future living materials that can grow sense and adapt.

Join as a Researcher

Bring your project to life with us.

Lifefabs Institute is designed to support all researchers (from local residents to post-docs) to experiment with biomaterials, living systems, and sustainable technologies.

Serving as an accessible incubator for early-stage biodesign concepts, researchers can save money and time, preventing long, drawn-out funding accelerators. Instead, this energy and time can be devoted to the development and translation of ideas.

Join Us

Our Research Members enjoy 24/7 access to Lifefabs’ facilities, equipment, and hands-on training from our team.

The wider community can book a visit or take part in our workshops to learn and grow their biofabrication and maker skills.

Partner with Us

R&D Collaborations

Together we can can transform early-stage projects into groundbreaking solutions.

We enable private companies, university labs, public organisations, and research teams to embed nature-inspired design principles, advanced biomaterials, and cellular engineering techniques into their innovation pipelines, fostering sustainable, cutting-edge solutions through project collaboration, specialist training and consultancy services.

Lifefabs Institute’s research groups collaborate and work with industry partners on projects that are high impact and mutally beneficial.
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Learn More

What's On

Inclusive Learning & Events

At Lifefabs Institute our mission is to foster a safe and inclusive community where all people can learn, create and meaningfully fabricate with the life sciences.

As Biodesign becomes the next frontier, our goal is to ensure that all persons can explore and participate in this emerging field.

Upcoming Events Visit Us

Stay up-to-date with our latest programmes and research.

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Outreach & School Learning

Inspiring Future Innovators

We believe that it is our responsibility to ensure the broadest community possible has access to the creative arts and STEAM opportunities - and run a range of creative and engaging events across schools, community centres and festivals in and around London.
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Find out more about our outreach workshops and events for schools below.

Available Workshops

Donate

Support our Inclusive Innovation

Since 2024, Lifefabs Institute has existed to democratise biodesign and biofabrication by providing an open-access, collaborative space where creatives, scientists, and communities can invent, learn, and translate cutting-edge biological research into real-world solutions that advance health, sustainability, and social impact.

Support Lifefabs