How to Grow (Almost) Anything

What if everyone, everywhere had access to the power of synthetic biology?

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The Course

Discover details about the HTGAA course structure, requirements, logistsics, and eligibility.

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YOU can take HTGAA, for FREE, online wherever you are! A course signup form will be posted here in December.

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Global Nodes

Local community biolabs around the world participate in the HTGAA network and support Global Students.

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A short video explaining the HTGAA class, showing some of the class's lab work and robotic pipetting automation.

About HTGAA

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.

Class Lecturers

David Sun Kong

MIT Media Lab
HTGAA Co-Founder, Principal, and Organizer

George Church

Professor, Harvard Wyss Institute
HTGAA Co-Founder and Principal

Joseph Jacobson

Professor, MIT Media Lab
HTGAA Principal

Emily Leproust

Founder & CEO, Twist Bioscience

Shuguang Zhang

MIT Media Lab

Thrasyvoulos Karydis

Co-Founder & CTO, DeepCure

Pranam Chatterjee

Professor, University of Pennsylvania
Co-Founder UbiquiTx & Gameto

Jason Yim

MIT CSAIL

Christopher Mason

Professor, Cornell
Co-Founder, Onegevity Health, Biotia, BridgeOmics, & Nurture Genomics

Lisa Riedmayr

Professor, DTU (Technical University of Denmark)

Ron Weiss

Professor, MIT

Evan Holbrook

Founder, ESP Therapeutics

Kate Adamala

Professor, University of Minnesota

Peter Nguyen

Harvard Wyss Institute

Ally Huang

miniPCR bio

Patrick Boyle

Ginkgo Bioworks

John Glass

J. Craig Venter Institute

Jef Boeke

Professor, New York University

Evan Daugharthy

Founder, Harton Therapeutics
VP Science, ReadCoor

Lindsay Morrison

Principal Scientist, Waters Corporation

Nathan Canniff

Senior Scientist, Waters Corporation

Manu Prakash

Professor, Stanford

Suzanne Lee

Founder, BioFabricate

Christina Agapakis

Oscillator
Ginkgo Bioworks

Megan Palmer

ARPA-H
Stanford
Ginkgo Bioworks

Global Nodes

Around the world many community and university biolabs participate as Nodes in the HTGAA network, serving both local populations and the global HTGAA community.

Our Sponsors

HTGAA would not be possible without the gracious support of our many generous sponsors: