What if your Tamagotchi was alive and glowing? This toy prototype is full of bacteria

Kids and bacteria: It’s normally a parenting nightmare, a cocktail of late-night pediatric calls and wasted weekends.

The idea of ​​a bacteria-filled toy probably sounds like a recipe for disaster. This team of designers says the opposite.

Meet SquidKid, a prototype toy designed by Northeastern University students that is essentially a biological Tamagotchi. Kids care for this squid toy’s bioluminescent bacterial culture, keeping it alive and glowing. The hope of SquidKid, which won a finalist spot in the international Biodesign Challenge competition, is to create not only a lasting friend, but also a lasting connection between children and the natural world.

“Our real goal was to create a bioreactor that would be permanent, so that you could keep a bacterial culture alive for an extended period of time, like you would an aquarium or something like that,” says Deirdre Ni Chonaill, a master’s student in experiment design and associate director of creative and experiment design in Northeastern’s Bouvé College of Health Sciences. “Kids don’t always treat their toys very well. With the Tamagotchi, there are times when if you ignore it, it dies. In that case, you actually kill something.”

Children must maintain the bacteria housed in SquidKid, providing them with oxygen, the right “broth” or food, and constant agitation. The toy is even designed with a squeezable tentacle that injects oxygen into the system and displaces bacteria, encouraging them to glow.

Blending art, science and hands-on learning

SquidKid began his life in the classroom. The student team designed it as part of their Critical Design for an Adaptive Future course taught by Katia Zolotovsky, assistant professor of design and biotechnology.

“SquidKid is not just about microbiology,” says Zolotovsky. “It’s also about teaching kids how to take care of the environment and then learning about biology, mutualism and environmental interdependence.”

The class bridges the gap between the arts and sciences. Zolotovsky’s goal is how to harness biotechnology in a fun but impactful way. In just one semester, its students learn the basics of biotechnology before getting their hands dirty and actually designing with biomaterials.

The tangible aspect of biomaterials helps even students who arrive with only an understanding of high school biology get by.

“When you work with materials, you see results immediately,” says Zolotovsky.

Her students have designed clothing made from bioplastics, culinary experiments made from algae, and menstrual cycle trackers made from biomaterials. Then there’s SquidKid.

From classroom concept to competition finalist

Inspired by the Hawaiian bobtail squid and its symbiotic relationship with bioluminescent bacteria, a team of students decided to bring bioluminescence into the home.

“We simply wanted to combine these spectacular bioluminescent materials with our everyday, more intimate [uses]” says Motong Shi, a 2025 graduate of Northeastern with a degree in interaction and experience design.

However, as a team of four designers with mostly high school-level biology backgrounds, they had to quickly learn Bacteria 101. Using Northeastern’s Wet Lab Makerspace, they conducted disastrous early experiments.

“We went to look with an electron microscope,” says Ni Chonaill. “We wanted to see if our bacteria were alive and active, and we didn’t know if they were contaminated with E. coli.”

With the help of Ezri Abraham, a biology student they recruited from another class team, and an ecotoxicologist, they settled on a design compelling enough to allow them to participate in the Biodesign Challenge 2025 in New York.

Both Ni Chonaill and Shi were shocked when they learned that SquidKid was a finalist in the internationally renowned design competition. Many other biodesign challengers had been developing their ideas for much longer and with much more scientific or technical expertise.

Despite their surprise, they never doubted SquidKid’s power. It may seem small, but it’s full of big ideas and even bigger ambitions.

“What would it mean for a generation to grow up seeing bacteria as collaborators and not threats, to recognize care as a form of intelligence and a skill that responds, adapts to and sustains life?” » said Ni Chonaill. “We think toys can trigger this change.”