DEF CON 29 Biohacking Village - Alex Hoekstra - Open Source Vaccine Developer Kits VDKs

Vaccine development has traditionally been an expensive and thus primarily proprietary endeavor. Tools to decrease costs, increase adaptability, speed of production, speed of testing, and expand access to could help increase participation, collaboration, innovation, infectious disease biosecurity, and equity in vaccine development and ultimately vaccine deployment globally. Open-Source VDKs could fill a vital and underserved niche in the ecosystem or vaccine development. RaDVaC is building tools to increase participation in vaccine development. Key features of a useful vaccine developer kit (VDK) include technical specs for vaccine candidate design, production, testing, adaptation, and collaboration. The ecosystem of vaccine development is weaker for a lack of open-source toolkits (open-source infrastructure is an investment in anti-fragility).