About Us

About the BioBus

History

The BioBus was founded in August, 2007 by Ben Dubin-Thaler, only weeks after he presented his Ph.D. thesis on how cells move. Turning down job offers in academia, Dr. Ben pursued his dream of building a vehicle to bring hands-on science education to communities that rarely have such opportunities. After purchasing a 1974 San Francisco transit bus, Dr. Ben created the BioBus, a high-tech laboratory on wheels, boasting an array of advanced scientific equipment.

Today

The BioBus reaches over 18,000 people a year; visiting schools, summer camps, parks, museums, festivals and after-school programs across New York City and the country. The BioBus focuses its efforts on schools that lack resources for hands-on science education. Our students explore the immediate, microscopic world around them in an inquiry-based, hands-on setting aided by state-of-the-art science equipment and supervised by Ph.D. level scientists.

The BioBus is committed to environmental sustainability. The BioBus is carbon neutral; its daily energy needs are provided by solar panels, a wind turbine, and an engine that runs on waste vegetable oil. A living green roof keeps the bus cool in the summer time while a super-efficient pellet burning stove that uses waste sawdust to heat the bus when we’re parked. In addition, we use low-environmental impact and salvaged materials in our projects whenever feasible in an effort to reduce waste.

Not-for-profit

The BioBus is operated by Cell Motion Laboratories, Incorporated, an educational non-profit organization based in New York. Our programs are run by our dedicated staff and volunteers. Are you ready to join us?

Major Sponsors

Olympus supported the inception of the BioBus with major equipment grants as well as superb technical assistance. Their donation of new microscopes, digital cameras, and light sources has introduced thousands of students to the wonders of the microscopic world.

Carl Zeiss is a proud supporter of the BioBus, providing a fluorescence stereo zoom microscope to allow students to explore the internal workings of small worms and crustaceans.

Motic and Swift have donated microscopes and microscope cameras to the BioBus, greatly increasing the flexibility of the BioBus experimental setup.

Nikon donated a CoolScope, a fully robotic microscope that can be controlled remotely over the internet, in addition to providing superb technical service to help maintain BioBus microscopes in top working condition.