GaudiLabs is an independent laboratory and open-source hardware company based in Switzerland, founded in 2013. GaudiLabs was inspired by Urs’ studies in microtechnology with the Anarchist Watchmakers at EPFL Lausanne, consulting work in open innovation, and time spent with biohacking communities (such as Hackteria.org) and open-source hardware communities (such as the GOSH gatherings).
With the end of 2025 approaching, I would like to give a short summary of our contributions toward making open science hardware ubiquitous.
The GaudiLabs laboratory, where LABS stands for Love, Art, Business, and Science, is run by me, Urs Gaudenz, together with partner Miranda Moss. We work on transdisciplinary projects, and the laboratory itself is largely built from salvaged laboratory equipment and self-built DIY tools. Blueprints and documentation for many of these tools are published online.
Through the online shop GaudiShop.ch, we currently offer five open science hardware products, with more than 50 sub-products or components in total. We generate an average annual revenue of approximately €250,000, based entirely on 100% open-source products and services.
One of our main products is OpenDrop, a digital microfluidics platform. Originating from the Digital Biology community with the goal of creating an automated open laboratory, OpenDrop by GaudiLabs is, next to SciBots and DigiBio, one of three companies that grew out of this community and are still operating today.
With OpenDrop, we offer this future-oriented technology as a ready-made device with tested cartridges for a quick start. At the same time, we provide all components separately, enabling users to build their own cartridges. The full manufacturing process is documented online, and we even sell an assembly jig to support reproducibility.
With over 1,000 devices sold, OpenDrop has become a widely adopted and affordable digital microfluidics platform for researchers, technology companies, and creative practitioners. Customers include more than 60 universities and over 100 companies. Among them are prominent institutions in Europe and the United States (such as the Wyss Institute, the Francis Crick Institute, Agilent Technologies, and Roche Diagnostics). Asia is also an important market for us, with customers including KAIST in Korea and Huawei in China. We are happy to work with partner distributors in Korea, China, and Japan.
More than 30 scientific papers have been published using OpenDrop on a wide range of topics, and the original OpenDrop paper has received over 100 citations. GaudiLabs also maintains a strict “no NDA” policy. All industry collaborations have been conducted without non-disclosure agreements, and all custom-specific work contributes back to the open-source project.
Our second important product is the PocketPCR, an open-source thermocycler for DNA amplification. With over 500 units sold, this device is popular among field researchers, hobbyists, and users in low-resource settings. At GaudiLabs, we are especially proud to provide access to technologies that would otherwise be out of reach for many people. Feedback like the one below is what motivates us to continue:
“The first machine I purchased has been working exceptionally well. Besides the educational project, it has also been an essential tool in my PhD research. I’ve been using it to study mutations in malaria vaccine candidate antigens and to track markers of chemoresistance in malaria parasites from Brazil. The downstream sequencing has worked wonders, and I’ve been getting excellent results.”
— Lucas Tavares de Queiroz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz
Building on the “Global LAMP” project supported by GOSH, we released the qPocketPCR this year—an ultra-compact, open-source real-time PCR thermocycler. We hope this device will further broaden access to DNA analysis technologies worldwide.
We would like to thank everyone we have worked with over the years, and everyone who contributes to making open science hardware ubiquitous. As 2025 comes to a close, amid conflicts, crises, and growing concerns around sustainability, we believe that openness and sharing are more important than ever. We hope the ongoing GaudiLabs story can give confidence to others to pursue an open approach, whatever field they are working in, and to trust that collaboration, transparency, and generosity can be viable foundations for meaningful transformation.
Urs & Miranda, GaudiLabs
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