The CELLS Matter: BioFABricating For the Future program provides an interdisciplinary space where biology, creativity, and sustainability intersect. By utilizing our BioMakerSpace, participants engage in hands-on experimentation with living systems, such as growing bio-leather from kombucha cultures, creating bioplastics, or "painting" with naturally occurring or engineered colorful microorganisms.

This program is vital to both science and society as it humanizes complex biotechnologies, making them accessible and tangible through artistic expression. Scientifically, it fosters innovative thinking by challenging traditional disciplinary boundaries, often leading to new perspectives on sustainable manufacturing. Socially, it promotes "bio-literacy," empowering citizens to understand and critique emerging technologies such as synthetic biology, while inspiring the development of eco-friendly materials that could reduce our reliance on petroleum-based plastics.

CELLS is among the recipients of a TEDCO Maryland MakerSpace Initiative Program Development grant for FY2027, which will support the development of the official program curriculum and the purchase of necessary equipment.