The electroporator is a CRISPR tool that normally costs up to $10,000. Researchers made a version that costs 23 cents

Researchers at Georgia Tech just revealed they’ve found a way to create an electroporator that costs next to nothing to make. Their research was just published in the journal PLOS Biology.

These researchers were able to create a version of the electroporator that can generate short bursts of more than 2,000 volts of electricity, which they named the “ElectroPen,” using a crystal from a common lighter, copper-plated wire, heat-shrinking wire insulator and aluminum tape. They then created a case for these components using a 3D printer. They claim you can assemble it within 15 minutes once you have all the pieces.

They used the piezoelectric crystal from the lighter as a power source, after trying multiple different types of crystals to generate the right amount of electricity, because it was the best at producing a consistently-high voltage while they were testing out the device.

Read More at Inverse

Read the rest at Inverse